True Crime

Fairfax police: Bijan Ghaisar had no weapon when he was killed by Park Police

Federal authorities have declined to discuss why officers shot man after a fender-bender in Northern Virginia.

By Tom Jackman October 29 at 12:58 PM

Bijan Ghaisar, the motorist who was fatally wounded by two U.S. Park Police officers in Fairfax County last November, did not have a weapon “in plain view or reach of the driver” when the officers fired nine times into his Jeep Grand Cherokee, according to reports released by county police. ... Both the Park Police and the FBI, who took over the investigation shortly after the Nov. 17 shooting, have declined to say whether Ghaisar was armed or posed a threat to the officers. The reports released Friday by Fairfax County police, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post, said the Park Police officers had to smash open Ghaisar’s driver’s side window to free him from his vehicle after they shot him.

[Video shows Park Police fired nine shots into Bijan Ghaisar's Jeep at close range, killing him]

The two officers remain on the job and have not been publicly identified by the Park Police or the FBI. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Post in August, Park Police Chief Robert D. MacLean last week declined even to confirm that two men, identified to The Post by one law enforcement official as the officers involved in the incident, were employed by the Park Police.

Ghaisar, a 25-year-old accountant who lived in Tysons Corner, was driving his green Jeep south on the George Washington Memorial Parkway shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 when he apparently stopped in the left lane of traffic and was rear-ended by a Toyota Corolla driven by an Uber driver. The driver reported that Ghaisar did not stop to exchange information but instead drove off. The driver called police.

The Park Police officers spotted Ghaisar’s Jeep a few minutes later on the parkway south of Alexandria, in Fairfax County. They signaled for Ghaisar to pull over, which he did twice, a video shows. Each time, an officer darted to Ghaisar’s Jeep with his pistol drawn, and each time Ghaisar drove off. The third time Ghaisar stopped, the Park Police parked their marked sport-utility vehicle in front of the Jeep, a video shot from a Fairfax County police car shows. When Ghaisar tried to slowly maneuver around the Park Police vehicle, both officers opened fire. Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. released the video of the shooting in January over federal investigators' objections.
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Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star. Follow https://twitter.com/TomJackmanWP