More than six years after two U.S. Park Police officers shot and killed unarmed driver Bijan Ghaisar in Fairfax County, the officers — who were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing — have filed a federal lawsuit against the Interior Department.
The agency took steps to fire officers Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya in 2021, but the officers remain on paid administrative leave. Their lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in D.C., asks a judge to order the Interior Department to make a final determination, saying the officers are suffering “significant career and financial consequences, including damage to their reputation, loss of overtime pay, and the ongoing stress.”
In November 2017, Vinyard and Amaya followed 25-year-old Ghaisar’s Jeep Cherokee in a slow-speed chase down George Washington Parkway, after Ghaisar drove away from a fender-bender. The chase ended in the Fort Hunt neighborhood, where the officers fired 10 shots at Ghaisar.
In 2019, the Justice Department announced it would not pursue federal charges against the officers, saying it could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully violated Ghaisar’s civil rights, and that it would not have been able to disprove the officers’ claims that they acted in self-defense.
In 2020, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano secured manslaughter indictments against Vinyard and Amaya. However, in 2021, federal judge Claude Hilton dismissed the charges, saying there was no evidence that the officers acted with “malice, criminal intent, or any improper motivation,” and that the decision to shoot Ghaisar was “necessary and proper under the circumstances.”
In 2021, the officers were notified that the Interior Department planned to terminate their employment, but no further action has been taken, and the officers remain on leave.
The new lawsuit claims the Interior Department’s “unreasonable delay in issuing a final disciplinary action has damaged the Officers’ careers with the U.S. Park Police. It has caused them a loss of pay, promotion opportunities, career advancement, and has resulted in great stress and hardship.”
Vinyard’s attorneys, Daniel Crowley and Katelyn Clarke, and Amaya’s lawyer, Edward Wenger, say their clients are hamstrung in fighting their proposed removal because they can’t file an appeal or seek arbitration since a final decision has not been rendered.
WTOP is seeking comment from the Ghaisar family about the lawsuit.
