The U.S. Park Police officers who fatally shot unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar in 2017 have returned to duty after being cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the inspector general, according to a D.C. court document.
Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya had been on paid administrative leave after shooting 25-year-old Ghaisar during an attempted traffic stop.
The officers were awaiting a final decision on their employment status by the Department of the Interior, which had initially proposed the officers should lose their jobs in 2021.
In July 2024, the officers filed a federal lawsuit against the department, claiming there was “unreasonable delay in issuing a final disciplinary action,” that caused the officers “significant career and financial consequences, including damage to their reputation, loss of overtime pay, and the ongoing stress.”
That lawsuit was dropped after the Interior Department reinstated Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya as U.S. Park Police officers Dec. 16, according to a D.C. court document.
A month before they were cleared to return to duty, the inspector general’s office released a report that found the officers followed protocol, in all but one instance (when Amaya banged his gun on Ghaisar’s Jeep) and that their shooting of the Virginia man was justified.
Kelly Ghaisar, Bijan’s mother, said she was “really upset” by the department’s decision to put the officers back on the job.
“I’m not surprised at anything anymore because they were on pay for the past seven years, and they were waiting for the perfect time to reinstate them,” she told WTOP. “I don’t think they ever meant to fire them, and if they wanted to fire them, they would have done it long ago.”
Bijan Ghaisar’s loved ones created a foundation in his honor to prevent gun violence.
“It really is such a devastating and almost a feeling of betrayal that our son’s murderers have been found not guilty, and they are OK to go back and serve the community when we all saw the tape, and then we all know what they did,” his mother said.
Jonathan Fahey, an attorney for Amaya, called the earlier attempt to remove the officers from their positions unjust and said, “Politics has been the driving force behind both the state and federal government’s actions.”
“It wasn’t until after an unbiased Inspector General’s report cleared them that the Department of Interior reached the decision that could have been reached years ago and without causing irreparable damage to the lives, careers and reputations of two outstanding officers,” Fahey told WTOP in an email.
What happened Nov. 17, 2017
After Bijan’s Jeep was rear-ended by an Uber, the 25-year-old drove away from the scene, the inspector general’s report said. Later, officers caught up to Bijan and tried to pull him over multiple times on the George Washington Parkway.
After a third attempt to pull Bijan’s Jeep over in the Fort Hunt area of Fairfax County, his vehicle moved forward and the officers fired multiple shots, according to the inspector general.
Bijan was shot four times in his head and once in his wrist, according to his family. He later died at the same hospital where he was born.
At the time, the 25-year-old was working as an accountant and living in Tysons.
His family reached a $5 million settlement in 2023 with the federal government in a wrongful-death lawsuit that initially sought $25 million.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan and Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
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