Park Police Shooting Victim's Family: 'We Want Names' Of Officers

WASHINGTON, DC—"We want names. We want justice. We are Bijan." That's what a crowd was chanting Friday night in Rawlins Park across from the Department of the Interior in Washington DC. Family and friends of Bijan Ghaisar, an accountant from McLean fatally shot by U.S. Park Police during a Nov. 17, 2017 pursuit continued a push for answers about why two officers fired nine shots at him and who these officers are.

Video of the shooting had been released a few days before. The video shows police attempting to pull Ghaisar's car over multiple times, approach the car with weapons drawn. He drove away two times before the chase ended at Alexandria Avenue and Fort Hunt Road, where the two officers fired nine shots as Ghaisar attempts to drive away. The last set of gunshots stopped Ghaisar, and his car nearly flipped over into a ditch and came to rest against a stop sign.

Ghaisar, 25, died 10 days after the shooting after suffering three shots to the head and severe brain damage. Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. decided to release the in-car footage, taken in a Fairfax County Police cruiser, after showing it to Ghaisar's family.

Ghaisar's family, who hosted the rally, has said he was unarmed. They wrote on the Facebook event page authorities have not explained why officer fired shots or who the officers were.

Speaking at the rally Friday night, his sister Negeen Ghaisar demanded an explanation for every single shot fired at her brother's car. "Bijan was scared of guns, and quite frankly if someone pointed a gun directly at my head, I would probably do the exact same thing my brother did," referring to how he drove away as officers approached.

Meanwhile FBI has not announced any updates on the investigation. But a Park Police report obtained by The Washington Post revealed police originally were pursuing Ghaisar's car after an Uber driver rear-ended him on Slaters Lane in Alexandria. The police report indicates the vehicles clocked in at 59 miles per hour during the pursuit, but Park Police wouldn't comment on why officers were pursuing car that had been rear ended in the first place.

The two officers that fired the nine shots at Ghaisar's car have been on administrative leave since the shooting.

Watch the full rally below.

Follow McLean Patch on Facebook for more on this and other local news.

Image via Ghaisar family