In the aftermath of the murder of 37-year old Timothy Johnson by a Fairfax County police officer in February 2023, Police Chief Kevin Davis announced at a press conference that the officer who fired the fatal shot would be âdismissed.â At the time no charges were brought upon either of the officers involved, though eventually, Steve Descano, the Fairfax County Commonwealthâs attorney, successfully convened a grand jury and eventually delivered a split verdict: former Fairfax County Police Sergeant Wesley Shifflett was found guilty of reckless discharge of a firearm and not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. After the trial, the extralegal murder of Timothy Johnson brings into stark focus the track record of Chief Davis, yet most mainstream media outlets donât seem to be interested in making that connection.
Upon the announcement that Kevin Davis was to be the new Chief of Police in Fairfax, some inconvenient facts began to make themselves known. These facts came in the form of two successful lawsuits against Davis for abuses during his tenure in Prince Georgeâs County. One of these was from former White House intern Mark Spann, who was pulled over in front of his parentsâ house in Temple Hills back in 1993. According to Spann, Davis had inquired about the Mercedes that Spann was driving. As the conversation continued Davis grew more agitated and proceeded to violently jerk Spann out of the car, throwing him down onto the pavement with such force that it caused Spann to bleed. The abuse didnât end when Spann was in Davisâ cruiser, where Davis would then unleash a battery of threats and racial slurs.
Despite his violent arrest, it would be Mike Spann himself who would be charged with battery, alongside âresisting arrestâ and âdisorderly conduct,â only for a hung jury to acquit him on all charges. Spann successfully sued for damages against the then-officer Davis. Prince Georgeâs County Human Relations Commission had ruled that Spannâs arrest was âan outrageous incident of police misconduct,â and had recommended âsignificant disciplinary actionâ against Davis, along with an investigation into the arrest; none of which occurred. Not in 1994, and certainly not after 1999, where Davis, along with Prince Georgeâs County narcotics officers, illegally detained a 19-year old without a warrant and held him for questioning for five hours, violating his rights. This teenager also won damages from Davis and his colleagues in civil court.
Despite this record, Jeff McKay, Chief of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, gave Davis the role of Police Chief. Itâs worth noting as well that McKay himself was investigated by Virginia State Police over the purchase of a home from a developer friend for about $850,000 as an âundisclosed giftâ in 2019. He denies any wrongdoing. The appointment of a Police Chief with two successful civil suits against him for past malfeasance, is a clear sign that McKayâs policy towards policing is the classic âsee no evilâ mentality that encourages the kind of cavalier disregard for normal people that led, in this case, to the murder of Timothy Johnson, whose only alleged crime was taking a pair of sunglasses.
In May of 2023, two months after Timothy Johnson was murdered in broad daylight, the Fairfax Board of Supervisors formed the Matrix Working Group (MWG), led by the efforts of our local Fairfax NAACP. The mission of the MWG was to make recommendations for the Fairfax County Police Department in the area of âpolice reform.â Davis and his department claimed to have enacted specific reforms that they found âreasonable,â without giving any specific details as to which reforms were enacted and which were rejected. Not to the MWG, and not to the Board of Supervisors. In fact, it would be the MWG that would report a year later that only 13 out of the 52 proposals were enacted by the Department, despite Davisâ assurance that 32 of the 52 proposals had been put in place.
Paragraph four of Chapter 6 of Title 9.1 of the Virginia code states that:
âIf the law-enforcement agency declines to implement any changes recommended by the law-enforcement civilian oversight body, such law-enforcement civilian oversight body may require the law-enforcement agency to create a written record, which shall be made available to the public, of its rationale for declining to implement a recommendation of the law-enforcement civilian oversight body;â
However, it appears that neither Jeff McKay, nor the Board of Supervisors, seems all too interested in pressing the department on this subject. In fact there doesnât seem to be any âlaw-enforcement civilian oversight bodyâ in Fairfax County. The closest thing we have is a Police Civilian Review Panel. Not only is the Board of Supervisors liaison for the panel a former cop, but any concerns about the Fairfax County Police department reviewed by this panel are investigated by⊠the Fairfax County Police Department.
If the two successful civil suits against Kevin Davis were not alarming enough, his ghosting of the Matrix Working Group and failure to act after the murder of unarmed civilians like Tim J should indicate that underneath the mask of progressive Police Chief who wants to reform his department, is yet another brick in the blue wall of silence that only protects and serves police officers rather than citizens. If Jeff McKay cannot or will not replace Kevin Davis then McKay himself should be replaced, and the only way to do that is to deny him another term on the Board of Supervisors. We the people can, through the ballot box, affect the change we need in light of the deafening silence of McKay.
Source: Vacpusa.org










