FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Opening statements and testimony began Wednesday in the trial of a former northern Virginia police sergeant charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man suspected of shoplifting sunglasses.
Prosecutors say former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett recklessly discharged his service gun in the killing of Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, near a busy shopping mall on Feb. 22, 2023.
Prosecutors say Shifflett and his team at the Fairfax County Police Department received a report from security guards that Johnson stole sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store in Tysons Corner Center. After identifying Johnson, Shifflett and another officer chased him into a densely wooded area near the mall, where Shifflett fired twice at the man…