Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, granted clemency to a fired police sergeant just days after the officer was sentenced to prison in connection with shooting and killing an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses.

Wesley Shifflett, 36, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after he was found guilty of recklessly handling a firearm in the Feb. 22, 2023, killing of 37-year-old Timothy McCree Johnson. He was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in Johnson’s death.

Youngkin granted Shifflett clemency on Sunday, allowing the officer to be freed from prison, although his felony conviction will remain.

“I am convinced that the court’s sentence of incarceration is unjust and violates the cornerstone of our justice system—that similarly situated individuals receive proportionate sentences,” Youngkin said in a statement. “I want to emphasize that a jury acquitted Sgt. Shifflett of the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter, a conviction for which the sentencing guidelines recommend no jail time or up to six months’ incarceration.”

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“In this case, the court rejected the Senior Probation and Parole Officer’s recommendation of no incarceration nor supervised probation and instead imposed a sentence of five years’ incarceration with two suspended and an additional five years of probation,” the governor continued. “Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer. It is in the interest of justice that he be released immediately.”

Youngkin also noted that his clemency does not limit Shifflett’s right to appeal his conviction for reckless discharge of a firearm.

Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said Youngkin’s decision felt as if it validated Shifflett’s killing of her son.

“Why now do we find it necessary to vacate or not consider the jury’s verdict, and to think that this honorable and fair judge did not sentence within the guidelines that he was afforded to?” she said at a news conference on Monday. “I don’t know where everyone’s coming from — if it’s because my son was Black, or because it was attempted shoplifting, or because he’s not here to defend himself.”

Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat whose office prosecuted the case, said at the news conference that the governor “stuck his face in where it didn’t belong.”

“If you care about having a fair justice system of Virginia that’s untainted by outside influence, Glenn Youngkin just spit your face,” Descano said.

The Fairfax County, Virginia, Courthouse, is seen, March 7, 2023. (AP)

Descano also argued that the governor was siding with a “White officer that was convicted of a crime that ended in a Black man being killed.”

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Shifflett, who at the time was a sergeant with Fairfax County police, acted recklessly when he shot and killed Johnson after a short foot pursuit outside Tysons Corner Center. Police had received a report from security guards that Johnson had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store.

Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson into a densely wooded area near the mall before Shifflett shot twice at Johnson, who was unarmed.

The former sergeant testified that he shot Johnson in self-defense after he believed Johnson reached into his waistband once he fell.

Body camera video played during the trial showed Shifflett yelling “Get on the ground” before firing two shots at Johnson two seconds later. After firing his weapon, Shifflett immediately shouted, “Stop reaching,” and purported to other officers that he observed Johnson putting his hand in his waistband.

Shifflett testified that his “motor functions were operating more quickly than I could verbalize.”

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Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano speaks at an event at the Center for American Progress on Tuesday, December 17, 2019. (Getty Images)

Johnson was heard in the footage saying, “I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing.”

Melissa Robey, executive director of the police advocacy group We Black Blue, said Monday that Shifflett’s mother called her three weeks ago about her son’s upcoming sentencing hearing to ask for help.

Robey, who previously worked in Youngkin’s administration, said she contacted Shifflett’s attorneys, who ultimately lobbied the governor for clemency.

“Somebody’s got to say ‘Enough is enough,’” Robey said. “These guys put that uniform on every single day — they’re there for your worst day. When is it time to stand up for them?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Payton McNabb, a former high school girls volleyball player who was severely injured when a transgender opponent spiked a ball in her face, will be one of President Donald Trump’s guests at his joint address to Congress on Tuesday night.

McNabb suffered the injury when she was a junior at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina, and has helped lead the charge to keep women’s and girls’ sports fair. She was one of the athletes who attended Trump’s event when he signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order.

She told Fox News on Monday she was stunned to hear she received the offer.

“It’s just such an incredible honor, and I’m so thankful, and I can’t believe I’m getting invited. I know that President Trump really supports what we’ve been fighting for and what I’ve been advocating for for over two years now,” she said. “And he’s really big on getting men out of women’s sports and out of their spaces.

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“So, I think this is just his way of letting us know that he sees us and he’s with us, and I’m just so thankful for that.”

On the play in question, McNabb said she suffered a concussion, brain bleed and permanent whiplash. Later, she said she dealt with partial paralysis and vision problems.

McNabb said she did not expect Trump to talk about her story, but it would be “insane” if he did.

“I know that he’s addressing a lot of important things. So, I’m not going to assume anything. But if he does, then I’m going to be so thankful and just really, really happy.”

President Donald Trump signs an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women’s or girls’ sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump is expected to outline his domestic and foreign policy plans with the Department of Government Efficiency expected to play a big role in the speech.

Fox News’ Caroline McKee contributed to this report.

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After two illegal immigrants from Jordan were released on bond after allegedly trespassing at Marine Corps Base Quantico last year, one of them has been re-arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a new report.

Authorities arrested Hasan Yousef Hamdan, 32, and Mohammad Khair Dabous, 28, on May 3, 2024 after they allegedly drove a box truck onto the base in what some experts warned could have been a “dry run” for a potential terror attack.

They were transferred to ICE custody and released on $15,000 and $10,000 bond, respectively. The terms of their release required them to show up for all further immigration hearings and to stay away from U.S. military facilities.

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Hamdan, who originally entered the U.S. in April 2024 near San Diego, was taken into custody and sent to a facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, the New York Post reported Monday.

The reason for his new arrest was not immediately clear. However, Bowling Green is where ICE has its Caroline Detention Facility, which houses both asylum seekers and illegals awaiting deportation.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US President Joe Biden walks to board Marine One as he departs Marine Corps Air Facility Quantico in Triangle, Virginia, on April 22, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamdan had been allowed to post bond despite reportedly appearing on the terror watch list, according to a letter signed by 13 members of Congress who slammed the Biden-era Justice Department for allowing the move.

“It is unthinkable that illegal aliens who attempted to gain access to a secure U.S. military facility would be released on bail, but the radical Biden-Harris regime has once again disregarded existing immigration law in favor of the comfort of foreign nationals,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, said at the time.

2 FOREIGN NATIONALS IN ICE CUSTODY AFTER ALLEGED ATTEMPTED BREACH AT MAJOR MARINE BASE 

Vehicles enter Marine Corps Base Quantico March 22, 2013 in Quantico, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Dabous initially entered the U.S. with a student visa and stayed in the country after its expiration, according to authorities.

When Hamdan and Dabous were first arrested, authorities said they hd no weapons, no prior criminal records and had not been accused of a terror-related motive.

However, Dave Katz, a former federal firearms instructor who has worked at Quantico and is now the CEO of Global Security Group, has warned that the story they allegedly gave authorities should raise red flags.

The men allegedly claimed they were contracted drivers for Amazon and were accused of posing as delivery drivers. Military police stopped them at the gate, but the driver allegedly ignored them and tried to move into the compound.

Vehicles drive through the main gate at Marine Corps Base Quantico in July 2004.  (Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

“A student overstay somehow gets in contact with someone illegally crossing into the U.S. on the other side of the country. Both of them wind up in that truck,” Katz said. “There is no possible explanation for what happened other than a sinister one.”

Quantico is a Marine Corps base that also houses training facilities and a lab for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, which could be potential terror targets, Katz said.

“Driving the box truck was a dry run for driving a box truck that was not going to be empty the second time,” Katz told Fox News Digital previously. “Can I prove that? No. But it’s like the 9/11 hijackers trying to get aboard planes with box cutters on other occasions prior to actually perpetrating the act.”

Charges related to the breach were dismissed without prejudice in October at the request of then U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber’s office, according to court records. She was nominated by then-President Biden in 2021. 

Aber has since been replaced with U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert, a longtime federal prosecutor and former Metropolitan Police Department officer.

The men still face immigration proceedings.