The involuntary manslaughter case in a fatal police shooting outside a Virginia mall goes to the jury

FAIRFAX, Va. – A jury began deliberating Thursday on whether a former police officer who fatally shot a shoplifting suspect after a chase outside a busy northern Virginia mall last year should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Wesley Shifflett testified that he shot Timothy McCree Johnson in self-defense in a wooded area outside Tysons Corner Center because he saw Johnson reaching into his waistband, possibly for a weapon.

As it turned out, Johnson was unarmed. Prosecutors say Shifflett acted recklessly by pursuing Johnson into a dark wooded area and firing two shots without ever identifying a firearm.

The case was sent to the jury on Thursday afternoon after a mishap on Wednesday that threatened to derail the trial. During prosecutors’ closing arguments Wednesday, the government mistakenly played a clip of a video taken by Shifflett’s body-worn camera minutes after the shooting that was never presented at trial. In the clip, Shifflett explains to other officers that he told Johnson, “Show me your hands,” something he never said to Johnson before or after the shots were fired.

Prosecutors further argued that Johnson made up the quote in his statement to officers because he already knew “he screwed up.”

Defense attorneys objected and said after Wednesday’s hearing that they wanted to seek a miscarriage because of the error the prosecution acknowledged.

On Thursday, however, defense attorneys, apparently satisfied with the way the case was going, did not file a motion for a mistrial. Judge Randy Bellows simply instructed the jury to ignore that part of prosecutors’ argument.

Shifflett’s defense attorney, Caleb Kershner, said during his closing argument Thursday that Shifflett reasonably believed his life was in danger when he saw Johnson reaching for his waistband. While Shifflett believed at the time that Johnson was reaching for a gun, Kershner speculated that Johnson was actually trying to get rid of the designer sunglasses he stole from a Nordstrom department store that sparked the chase in the first place.

He cautioned the jury against judging Shifflett’s split-second decision with the benefit of the doubt, citing what he said was an old axiom among police officers: “It is better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six.”

In her rebuttal that ended Thursday, prosecutor Jenna Sands told jurors that even if they believed Shifflett when he saw Johnson reaching for his waistband, they would still convict him of involuntary manslaughter and reckless handling of a firearm should.

She said his decision to pursue Johnson into a dark wooded area on an allegation of stolen sunglasses was reckless and unreasonable, as was his decision to fire two shots while fleeing in a crowded area.

The dimly lit bodycam footage of the video does not reveal whether Johnson reached into his waistband.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis fired Shifflett shortly after the shooting for violating the department’s use-of-force policy. But when Davis publicly released the bodycam video of the shooting, he acknowledged the video’s ambiguity.

“In most cases, police body camera footage speaks for itself,” Davis said at the time. “It’s not the case this time.”