September 21, 2018
The family of Bijan Ghaisar, who was fatally hot by US Park Police last November after a car chase in Virginia, have sued the federal government, seeking $25 million in damages.
The suit calls the shooting an “egregious, senseless, and unlawful killing of a young man by two out-of-control law enforcement officers.”
Park Police fired nine shots into the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Ghaisar, 25, was driving.
The suit accuses federal officials of failing to release to Ghaisar’s family or the public any details about the circumstances of the shooting. “Everything about this case, from the chase, to the shooting, to the subsequent treatment of the family has been cruel,” the suit states. The investigation of the killing was taken over by the FBI quickly after the shooting.
The suit outlines not only the pursuit and fatal shooting of Ghaisar in a residential neighborhood in Fairfax County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, but also alleges insensitive treatment of his family by the Park Police in the hours and days after the event, The Washington Post reported.
Park Police did not notify Ghaisar’s parents of the shooting for more than five hours after it had happened, and they would not allow the Ghaisars to spend more than 10 minutes per hour with their mortally wounded son, the suit alleges. The family says when a doctor arrived to examine Ghaisar for organ donation, the Park Police denied him access, declaring the brain-dead man “under arrest” and his body as “evidence.”
At a news conference August 3, Roy L. Austin Jr., a lawyer for the Ghaisar family, called the lack of information provided by authorities “cruel and unheard of.”
“The family simply wants justice for the killing of their son and brother,” Austin said.
The Ghaisars’ lawsuit notes that Park Police are not authorized to pursue a car into another jurisdiction—that is, off US Parks land—unless a felony is involved, and no felony was involved.
The incident began after another vehicle rear-ended Ghaisar’s Jeep after Ghaisar “stopped in the roadway abruptly” before driving away, according to a police report.
A Fairfax County police video, about 4-1/2 minutes long, begins several minutes later as Ghaisar’s Jeep passes a Fairfax County police vehicle, closely followed by Park Police.
During the chase, Ghaisar’s vehicle stops three times, and each time, Park Police approach his vehicle with their weapons drawn. The first two times, Ghaisar drives away and police give chase again. The third time, the policeshoot repeatedly.
The lawsuit states Ghaisar drove away the first two times most likely “out of fear of the overly aggressive officers and their brandished weapons.” But it doesn’t suggest why Ghaisar stopped again and again.
