Brad Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has closed its investigation into the United States Park Police shooting of 25-year old Bijan Ghaisar.
Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the local US Attorney’s office and the FBI informed Ghaisar’s family of their decision, concluding that they could not prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the the two USPP officers willfully violated federal civil rights statutes when they shot Mr. Ghaisar, who was unarmed.
The investigation indicated that, at around 7:30 PM Friday, November 17, 2017, USPP officers began a vehicular pursuit of Mr. Ghaisar on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. A Fairfax County Police lieutenant joined the pursuit, and his dash camera captured part of the pursuit on video. The chase ended at the intersection of Fort Hunt Rd. and Alexandria Ave. in Fairfax, and it was at this time that the two USPP officers shot Mr. Ghaisar multiple times while he sat in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. Emergency medical personnel took Mr. Ghaisar to INOVA Hospital, where he would die of his wounds 10 days later.
The federal investigation hinged on whether prosecutors violated criminal civil rights statutes relating to the Fourth Amendment right to not be subjected to an unreasonable search and seizure. Investigators could not prove that USPP officers willfully violated these statues, and as a result closed the investigation into the shooting of Ghaisar.
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