May 20, 2022
police officers are seen shooting into the car being driven slowly forward by
Bijan Ghaisar, 25, some 4-1/2 years ago. The two officers said they had to fire
because Ghaisar was driving the car at officer Alejandro Amaya (near the
center of this photo). Some who have watched the video say Amaya was to the
side of Ghaisar’s car, not in front of it, and in no danger.
Virginia’s new attorney general says he is dropping the state’s manslaughter charges against two US Park Police officers who killed Iranian-American Bijan Ghaisar 4-1/2 years ago.
Ghaisar’s family and supporters erupted in anger.
The action threatened to become a partisan political issue in the state of Virginia. The previous attorney general, Mark Herring, a Democrat, had sought the manslaughter charges and a grand jury indicted the two officers, Lucas Vinyard, 40, and Alejandro Amaya, 41. Jason Miyares, a Republican, defeated Herring’s bid for re-election last fall and has since scuttled many of Herring’s actions although, in this case, the action is actually one taken by a grand jury.
Ghaisar’s car was pursued by the two US Park Police officers November 17, 2017. Ghaisar pulled over and stopped his car three times. Each time when officers got out and approached his car, Ghaisar drove off, though he never drove at very high speed. On the third stop, the two police officers each fired five shots at Ghaisar, hitting him in the head four times.
But Ghaisar’s offense was only a minor one of involvement in a fender bender.
The federal government declined to take criminal action against the two officers. The prosecutor in Fairfax County, just outside Washington, DC, then took up the matter and was joined by Attorney General Herring.
In a statement April 22, Miyares, the new attorney general, said he and his team reviewed the evidence and “we agree with the results of the extensive review conducted by the Department of Justice, and the analysis of the United States District Court. In light of all the circumstances of the life-or-death situation confronting them, Officers Amaya and Vinyard acted reasonably in their use of force, and did no more than was necessary and proper to perform their lawful duties as federal officers. I have therefore decided to ask the Fourth Circuit [Court of Appeals] to dismiss the Commonwealth’s appeal. I will not perpetuate the continued prosecution of two officers who were doing what they were trained to do under tremendously difficult circumstances.”
Ghaisar’s parents, James and Kelly Ghaisar, both Iranian-born, held a news conference the day after Miyares’ action and said they would ask the Fourth Circuit Court to reject Miyares’ request to dismiss the case.
The case is an example of the jumbled ideological positions in the US today. Republicans usually stand up for state authority over federal authority. But Miyares has gone the other way.
Thomas G. Connolly, a lawyer for the Ghaisars, said, “By overriding the decision of the grand jury, AG Miyares has substituted his own political calculations for the judgment of the citizens of Fairfax County who heard the evidence and decided to indict these two officers for killing Bijan Ghaisar. It is a tragedy that, in this Commonwealth, justice is decided not by the evidence but by the political whims of a novice AG.”
Although the state prosecution is over, Steve Descano, the Fairfax County prosecutor (and a Democrat who has frequently clashed with Miyares since Miyares took office) held out hope that the US Justice Department under the Biden Administration would reconsider the department’s 2019 ruling under the Trump Administration and launch a federal case against the officers.
A civil suit filed by the Ghaisars against the Park Police remains pending. It was on the verge of trial in the fall of 2020 when Descano obtained the criminal indictments. A judge then put the civil case on hold.
A Park Police internal investigation of Vinyard and Amaya might now begin, which could lead to disciplinary action or firing. The Park Police have said they were waiting until the criminal case was resolved to begin an internal affairs case.
The FBI investigation ended when the Justice Department announced in November 2019 there would be no federal charges, saying, “The Department is unable to disprove a claim of self-defense or defense of others by the officers.” Prosecutors would have to prove that the officers “willfully” acted with “a bad purpose to disregard the law,” the Justice Department said.
Legal precedent says that if federal officers are acting in their official capacity, and do only what is “necessary and proper,” they are shielded from state prosecution.
The officers contend that they had to fire on Ghaisar because he was driving his car toward Officer Amaya and posed a deadly threat. Many of those who have watched a video of the shooting recorded by the dashcam in a Fairfax County police cruiser dispute that.
