VA Attorney General Drops Appeal Of Police Shooting Of Unarmed Man

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday dropped the state’s federal appeal in the manslaughter case against two U.S. Park Police officers who killed unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar in the Fort Hunt neighborhood of Fairfax County in November 2017.

Video recorded by Fairfax County police officers shows Ghaisar, 25, repeatedly driving away from Park Police Officers Lucas Vinyard, 39, and Alejandro Amaya, 41, during traffic stops on or near the George Washington Memorial Parkway. As he slowly pulled away a third time, Vinyard and Amaya both fired 10 shots at him. Ghaisar, who was struck four times, died later at a hospital.

Since the fatal shooting of Ghaisar by police, family and friends of the McLean accountant have been calling for justice in his killing. Last November, on the fourth anniversary of his death, a crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, one of Ghaisar's favorite places, for a vigil to celebrate Ghaisar and to call for prosecution of the involved officers.

The case was investigated by the FBI, because the Park Police are federal officers, and in 2019 the Justice Department declined to file federal civil rights charges against the officers. In 2020, Fairfax Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano obtained involuntary manslaughter indictments against both officers. Former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring joined in the prosecution of the case in federal court, where the officers were entitled to have the case heard.

Miyares said his office reviewed the evidence against the two U.S. Park Police officers and said that “we agree with the results of the extensive review conducted by the Department of Justice, and the analysis of the United States District Court.”

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th), who represents the area of Fairfax County where Ghaisar was killed, criticized Miyares for dropping the case against the two U.S. Park Police officers.

“Attorney General Miyares’ misguided decision to drop this case denies justice to the Ghaisar family," Beyer said in a statement. "A local grand jury reviewed the evidence and handed down indictments which Miyares just summarily overruled. This will cause great pain in our community.

“Bijan Ghaisar was unarmed when he was shot and killed, and the use of deadly force that took has life has never been justified," the congressman said. "No reasonable person familiar with the case would conclude that his killing was ‘necessary’ or ‘proper.’"

READ ALSO: Bijan Ghaisar Remembered 4 Years After Shooting By Park Police

Thomas G. Connolly, the Ghaisar family’s lawyer, said that by ending the prosecution of Amaya and Vinyard in the shooting and overriding the decision of a grand jury in the case, Miyares "has substituted his own political calculations for the judgment of the citizens of Fairfax County who heard the evidence and decided to indict these two officers for killing Bijan Ghaisar.

"It is a tragedy that in this Commonwealth, justice is decided not by the evidence but by the political whims of a novice AG," Connolly said in a statement.

But Miyares said that “In light of all the circumstances of the life-or-death situation confronting them, Officers Amaya and Vinyard acted reasonably in their use of force, and did no more than was necessary and proper to perform their lawful duties as federal officers.” Miyares ran his successful 2021 campaign for attorney general in opposition to the movement for holding police accountable for misconduct.

“I have therefore decided to ask the Fourth Circuit to dismiss the Commonwealth’s appeal,” Miyares said. “I will not perpetuate the continued prosecution of two officers who were doing what they were trained to do under tremendously difficult circumstances.”

Secrecy surrounded the police shooting, as the U.S. Park Police and the FBI declined to release information about the incident for the first two years after the officers killed Ghaisar.

The U.S. Department of Justice then announced in November 2019 that it would not bring federal charges against the two officers. Almost a year later, the two officers were indicted in Fairfax County Circuit Court by a special grand jury convened by Descano.

“Giving officers a get-out-of-jail-free card for a fatal shooting after a grand jury indictment for involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm cannot help but undermine trust in law enforcement in the community," Beyer said. "This is not how you support the police, and it sends a terrible message to victims of violence for whom this Attorney General promised to be a champion."

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• Officers To Not Face Federal Charges In Shooting Of Bijan Ghaisar