Last week special grand jury indicted former Fairfax County police officer Wayne Shifflitt on felony charges for involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon for the fatal shooting of Timothy Johnson in February. Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano requested to empanel the special grand jury after a regular grand jury declined to indict Shifflitt. A judge approved empanelling the special grand jury.

Only once in the department’s history, in 2015, has a police officer been charged for killing someone while on duty. That incident was the 2013 police shooting by Adam D. Torres of John B. Geer, an unarmed man, as he stood in the doorway to his own Springfield home. Torres agreed to a plea deal to involuntary manslaughter and a 12-month sentence.

Descano did so because, on April 17, a grand jury declined to indict Shifflitt after he fatally shot an unarmed shoplifting suspect during a nighttime foot pursuit outside of Tysons Corner Center on Feb. 22.

At that time, Descano said, “Since, by law, no prosecutors were permitted to be present in the room when the investigating officers made their presentation to the grand jury, I can’t say for sure what information was conveyed to the grand jurors.”

What happened on Feb. 22 casts a shadow over the county’s lack of a foot pursuit policy and why deescalation and decision-making training (ICAT) was delayed.

Dimly lit police body-worn camera video of the Feb. 22 incident, released by Chief Kevin Davis on March 23, shows two Fairfax Police officers, later identified as Sgt. Wesley Shifflett and Officer James Sadler, responding to suspected shoplifting of sunglasses. They chase a suspect later identified as Johnson, in a foot pursuit out of Tysons Corner Center mall to a parking garage, down a stairwell, through the garage, and toward Rt. 7, heading into a small wooded area. 

An officer can be heard saying, “Get on the ground,” four times, and “Stop reaching,” twice. The officers discharge their firearms; gunfire pops can be heard. Johnson is struck in the chest once, and restrained. 

Johnson says: “I’m not reaching for nothing. I have nothing. … I’m shot, man. Hurry.”

Other officers rendered aid until Fairfax County Fire and Rescue arrived. Johnson is taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.

Immediately after the shooting, as seen on the police body cam, Shifflett tells another officer (4:41), “He didn't get any rounds off… I don’t know if he was armed; he was continually reaching in his waistband. … (8:30) I was to the right of the suspect. … (8:35) I recall shooting two rounds … like into the woods.” 

DESCANO SAID in his Oct. 12 post that a court date for Shifflett will be set on Friday, Oct. 20. “As the elected head of Fairfax County's justice system, my primary goal is to keep this community safe, and I have the utmost respect for the police officers throughout Fairfax County who work tirelessly to protect our community," Descano posted. He cautioned, “A criminal indictment is an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.” 

Looking back over the related events and recommendations, on March 23, nearly a month after the fatal shooting of Johnson, Chief Kevin Davis held a press conference and released the Feb. 22, 2023 body-worn camera footage from the police shooting incident. Davis also confirmed that the officer who discharged the fatal wound, Shifflett, was fired. Asked why the officer was no longer with the department, Davis said that the officer's actions did “not comport with our general orders, our policies, and our procedures … and in particular, use of force.” 

Davis referred to the Police Executive Research Forum's (PERF) pending recommendations on police shooting incidents and how they might influence future law enforcement strategies in the county. Davis said that PERF [Police Executive Reform Research Forum], “the nation's leading think tank of American policing,” would “assess the last couple of years of the department’s officer-involved shootings.” 

PERF’s involvement, requested by FCPD, came after a sharp uptick in police shooting incidents here.

“We're eager to continue working with PERF, and to consider all those recommendations, and continue to get better,” Davis said.

According to Davis, PERF would independently look at the circumstances — “every condition you can imagine associated with officer-involved shootings”— to see what PERF could recommend to the department. 

“Because they're the pros, they're the professionals,” Davis said, referring to PERF. Davis clarified that PERF would not “directly” look at the Johnson police-involved shooting.

As of Feb. 22, 2023, Fairfax County Police had yet to implement ICAT [Integrating, Communications, Assessment, and Tactics] training for its sworn officers, despite receiving recommendations to do so in 2021. Training had been postponed to the spring of 2023. Neither had a foot pursuit policy been adopted.

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) developed the ICAT de-escalation training program to guide officers in defusing critical incidents.

In a research project on an investigation of the use of forces by the Fairfax County Police Department supported through an agreement between Fairfax County Office of the Independent Police Auditor and the University of Texas at San Antonio, June 2021, the authors called for the Fairfax Police Department to “consider adoption of Integrating Communication Assessment and Tactics (ICAT) training, developed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), to supplement the de-escalation training currently provided. This 16-hour training is the only police de-escalation training supported by empirical evidence demonstrating reductions in police use of force.”

PERF cited in its Fairfax County Police Department's April 2023 Review of Issues Surrounding Recent Police Shooting Incidents that 2022 FCPD recognized the need for ICAT training. 

PERF said in its April Review 2023 that the February 22, 2023 police shooting-incident is an example of an incident where proportionality and better critical thinking could have affected the outcome. “A clear concept of proportionality and use of the CDM [Critical Decision-Making Model] may have led the officer to think through other available options from the start and may have inspired a different response,” opined PERF in the report. 

According to Fairfax Police, “ICAT provides police officers with the tools, skills, and options they need to defuse a range of critical incidents successfully and safely. Developed … with input from hundreds of police professionals from across the United States, ICAT takes the essential building blocks of crisis intervention, critical thinking, effective communications, and tactics and puts them together in an integrated approach to training. The training program is anchored by the Critical Decision-Making Model that helps officers assess situations, make safe and effective decisions, and document and learn from their actions.”

The CY 2023 Equity Impact Plan by "Leadership Sponsor Kevin Davis, Chief of Police, and Equity Lead Major James Kraus" reported that the Fairfax police department committed to spring of 2023 as to when its sworn officers would receive Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (iCAT) training. Fairfax County Police Department's April 2023 Review of Issues Surrounding Recent Police Shooting Incident

As for a foot pursuit policy, PERF cited in Section V. Foot Pursuits of its Fairfax County Police Department's April 2023 Review of Issues Surrounding Recent Police Shooting Incidents: "Researchers noted in the previously referenced 2021 University of Texas at San Antonio report that: "[FCPD] should consider adopting a foot pursuit policy to help reduce force and injuries to officers and suspects. FCPD has yet to implement a foot pursuit policy [in 2023] PERF strongly advises the agency to do so."

When Descano posted on Friday, October 13, that a special grand jury had indicted former Fairfax County police officer Wayne Shifflitt on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon, he closed by saying, "The work of public safety includes charging officers for crimes when such actions are legally warranted. After reviewing the evidence in this case, I believe that probable cause existed that Shifflett committed a crime and that the entirety of the evidence should be put to a jury of community members.”