Fairfax County Police Watch: They shot him dead for stealing sunglasses while they were in a wooded area, out of public sight AND THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT

Two FCPD leaders dropped from wrongful death lawsuit over fatal police shooting

August 11, 2025

Two Fairfax County Police Department commanders have been dropped from a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of the victim in a fatal police shooting.

A federal judge on Friday (Aug. 8) granted the removal of both Deputy Chief Wilson Lee and Major Scott Colwell from the civil lawsuit initiated by the mother of Timothy Johnson, who was killed by a police officer during a chase in February 2023.

Melissa Johnson filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against former FCPD Sgt. Wesley Shifflett, who fired the fatal shot, and 12 other FCPD employees “who should have supervised him properly, given his existing record of recent excessive recourse to firearms when dealing with persons suspected of non-violent offenses,” the Jan. 16 complaint alleges.

On Feb. 22, 2023, Shifflett and other officers chased Timothy Johnson after he was accused of shoplifting sunglasses from a Nordstrom store at Tysons Corner Center….they gunned him down for stealing sunglasses.

In a wooded area outside the mall, Shifflett and another officer drew their weapons and fired at Johnson after allegedly seeing him tug at his waistband. The 37-year-old Johnson died at a hospital from his injuries.

Before Shifflett’s trial last year, prosecutors argued that three previous incidents where he pointed a gun at unarmed Black individuals while investigating shoplifting allegations at Tysons Corner Center illustrated a pattern of aggression. However, the circuit court judge presiding over the case prohibited those incidents from being presented as evidence to the jury, determining that they had “negligible” value.

A jury acquitted Shifflett of manslaughter on Oct. 4, 2024, but he was convicted on one count of recklessly using a firearm and sentenced on Feb. 28 to three years in prison, followed by five years of probation.

Shifflett had his penalty commuted by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in March — mere days after he began serving his prison time.

Melissa Johnson and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano criticized Youngkin for intervening, with Johnson calling the commutation a validation of Shifflett’s “rogue action.”

The civil lawsuit is ongoing, with Johnson seeking a trial by jury. Police Chief Kevin Davis is named among the defendants, along with Shifflett, Arnest and others. Judge Nachmanoff advised both parties of settlement options at Friday’s hearing, according to court documents.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.