From [HERE] Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said Tuesday he had requested a special grand jury to investigate the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Black man outside of Tysons Corner Center, reviving the possibility that an officer would be charged in the case a week after a grand jury refused to do so.

“After considering all options on a path forward, I have elected to request a special grand jury,” Descano said. “This is an ongoing matter and due to the sensitive nature of this case, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

The announcement comes after a grand jury declined to indict Sgt. Wesley Shifflett, the Fairfax County officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Timothy McCree Johnson on Feb. 22 after a foot pursuit that began when Johnson was suspected of stealing sunglasses at the mall. Shifflett was one of two officers to fire during the encounter, though police have said his shots were fatal, and officials moved to fire him from the police department following the incident.

Prosecutors had sought to indict Shifflett on charges of manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon. The other officer, James Sadler, remains with the department.

Carl Crews, an attorney for the Johnson family, said Tuesday he hoped Shifflett would be held accountable in Johnson’s killing.

“I believe that the Commonwealth feels that there was a crime committed,” Crews said. “And so Descano’s definitely pursuing this in that fashion.”

Last month after the family watched the video of the incident Crew stated,

“The best way to describe the video is to say first what was not on it,” said Carl Crews, an attorney for the family, after viewing the footage Wednesday. “What it doesn’t show: danger. It doesn’t show the officers faced any danger — imminent or otherwise.”

Crews said he and the family watched eight minutes of the Feb. 22 footage, ending with Sgt. Wesley Shifflett and Officer First Class James Sadler firing at Johnson, 37, who authorities have said was suspected of stealing designer sunglasses at the mall nearby. The Fairfax County Police Department is planning to release the footage publicly on Thursday afternoon.

Crews said the footage showed Shifflett, who was in uniform, and Sadler, who was in plain clothes, attempting to stop Johnson after the suspected theft and chasing him on foot into a wooded area. He said the officers can be heard telling Johnson to stop running and to lie down before they shoot him.

Crews said it was unclear to see who fired and when, though police have previously said that both officers fired shots and that Johnson was struck once in the chest. Authorities said he was taken to a hospital, where he died.

“This was an execution by Fairfax County police officers,” Crews said.

Crews said that a judge approved Descano’s request to impanel a special grand jury. He had previously said in a statement that Fairfax County police detectives “turned the Grand Jury away from returning an indictment” in their presentation of evidence last week to the panel. Descano said after the grand jury’s declination that no prosecutors were permitted to be present in the room when detectives made their presentation, and that he “could not say for sure what information was conveyed to the grand jurors.”

During a special grand jury investigation, a commonwealth’s attorney can be present during the investigatory stage of the proceedings, according to the Virginia Supreme Court court handbook for grand jurors.

Fairfax County police declined to comment on the request for a special grand jury.

The use of special grand juries in Virginia is rare, though in 2020 Descano empaneled such a group and obtained indictments charging two U.S. Park Police Officers with involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm in the fatal shooting of Bijan Ghaisar. The case was later moved to federal court and the charges were dismissed by a judge there, and Virginia’s attorney general dropped the state’s appeal.