Family Of Bijan Ghaisar Files $25M Wrongful Death Lawsuit

MCLEAN, VA—The family of Bijan Ghaisar, the McLean accountant fatally shot by Park Police last November, has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit. The family is suing the U.S. government, the two unidentified officers that shot Ghaisar and others involved. The lawsuit comes eight months after the Nov. 17, 2017 shooting.

Bijan Ghaisar’s parents James and Kelly Ghaisar and his sister Negeen Ghaisar filed the lawsuit in the District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Everything about this case, from the chase, to the shooting, to the subsequent treatment of the family has been cruel," states the family's lawsuit. "Eight months is too long for any grieving family to live without any explanation about why law enforcement officers killed their son and brother while authorities sit on relevant information."

The family has called for transparency in the investigation led by the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit claims the government has not released names of the officers that shot at him, the reasoning for pursuing him for a crash which his car was struck, and the charges that Park Police placed to prevent his family from touching him as he died in the hospital.

In July, the family filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to identify the officers on duty the evening of the shooting and officers on administrative leave since then. The family had also demanded the release of the 911 call from the original hit-and-run leading to the police pursuit, but the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia blocked the release due to the investigation.

No major updates about the investigation have been announced.

Park Police had pursued Ghaisar down the George Washington Memorial Parkway after he fled from a hit-and-run in Alexandria, where his vehicle was rear-ended in a left turn lane. Video released by Fairfax County Police shows police stopped his car several times during the pursuit. In these encounters, two officers approached Ghaisar's car with weapons drawn before Ghaisar drove away. The third time Ghaisar stopped, the two officers fired nine shots at him while he tried to drive away.

Ghaisar, who was unarmed, was struck by gunshots in the head several times and suffered severe brain damage, according to his family. He died 10 days after the shooting from injuries relating to the gunshots to the head.

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Image via Patch editor Emily Leayman