FBI Won't Release Park Police Shooting Video Yet

FORT HUNT, VA—The FBI has responded as Fairfax County officials called for transparency into the Nov. 17 U.S. Park Police shooting in Fort Hunt.

An FBI official said it's not the time to release the in-car video of the shooting in a response to a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors letter, WTOP reported. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors joined Police Chief Ed Roessler Jr. in calling for the release of the in-car video of the shooting once it no longer interferes with the investigation.

“While evidentiary items possessed by the FBI are often of public interest, the premature release of this video risks a fair, impartial, and unbiased investigation,” wrote Andrew Vale, assistant director in charge for the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “The FBI intends to release the dashcam video at the conclusion of specific investigative actions, so as not to prejudice the ongoing investigation.”

Fairfax County Police officers were on scene but did not discharge their weapons. However, a police cruiser recorded the shooting, and the footage was turned over to the FBI as evidence. An FBI spokeswoman said she couldn't say if or when the video will be released, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. Park Police have released few details but say officers were pursuing the driver, who was involved in an earlier hit-and-run in the City of Alexandria. The names of the two officers that shot him have not been released, but they have been on administrative leave since the shooting, according to WUSA. The pursuit went down the George Washington Memorial Parkway and ended on Fort Hunt Road and Alexandria Avenue.

As the FBI investigation continues, family and friends of Gheiser recently held a vigil to remember the Langley High School graduate, who worked at his family's accounting firm.

"Although his life was unjustly, unfairly, untimely, violently taken as an un-unarmed [sic] man, his dream of a peaceful world remains with us to fulfill," his father James Ghaisar said at the vigil, reports WTOP.

Image courtesy Ghaisar family