Inspector general finds US Park Police officers justified in 2017 shooting of unarmed driver Bijan Ghaisar

Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com
November 13, 2024, 9:45 AM

Two U.S. Park Police officers were justified in pursuing and eventually shooting unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar in November 2017, according to a newly-released Department of the Interior inspector general’s report.

Ghaisar’s mother told WTOP the release of the report, a few days before the seventh anniversary of the shooting was cruel and was, “to just dig this knife a little deeper.”

The 35-page report, found that officers Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya followed Park Police policy in all cases but one, when they pursued Ghaisar’s Jeep, after he drove away from a fender bender on the George Washington Parkway, in Alexandria, Virginia, on Nov. 17, 2017. The officers repeatedly stopped Ghaisar, and attempted to apprehend him, but he drove away from them three times.

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WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.

Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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