Crime & Safety

Family Of Bijan Ghaisar Oppose Appointment Of Former Police Chief

The appointment of a former U.S. Park Police chief to head a task force on the 2020 police crackdown in Lafayette Park attracts criticism.

The parents of Bijan Ghaisar, a 25-year-old resident of McLean who was shot and killed by U.S. Park Police in November 2017, are protesting a decision to appoint former U.S. Park Police Chief Robert MacLean to head a new police accountability task force.
The parents of Bijan Ghaisar, a 25-year-old resident of McLean who was shot and killed by U.S. Park Police in November 2017, are protesting a decision to appoint former U.S. Park Police Chief Robert MacLean to head a new police accountability task force. (Emily Leayman/Patch)

WASHINGTON, DC — The parents of Bijan Ghaisar, a 25-year-old resident of McLean who was shot and killed by U.S. Park Police in November 2017, are protesting Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision to appoint former U.S. Park Police Chief Robert MacLean to head a new task force reviewing law enforcement policies.

As head of the task force, MacLean would lead the review of the law enforcement practices in the wake of the police’s violent crackdown in Lafayette Park in 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump.

MacLean, who is now the director of the Interior Department’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security, was chief of the Park Police in 2017 when two Park Police officers fatally shot Bijan, an unarmed motorist.

Find out what's happening in Washington DCwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As chief of the U.S. Park Police, MacLean helped to cover up the officers' shooting of Ghaisar and ignored the family’s repeated pleas for information and justice, most notably refusing to release the names of the officers or any information about Ghaisar's killing.

MacLean’s appointment to the new task force that will focus on accountability and transparency among law enforcement agencies at the Department of the Interior “is an affront to the Ghaisar family and casts doubt on the process and its ultimate result,” Ghaisar's supporters said in a statement.

Find out what's happening in Washington DCwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I have not forgotten that Mr. MacLean refused for years to answer questions from community leaders and Members of Congress, including me, about the shooting of an unarmed man, Bijan Ghaisar, in my district by two officers who served under him,” U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) said in a statement last Tuesday.

“He refused to engage with the Ghaisar family, explain how the officers’ actions were justified under the U.S. Park Police’s use of force guidelines, or even reveal the officers’ names until he was forced to do so by court order," Beyer said.


RELATED: 2 U.S. Park Police Officers Indicted In Bijan Ghaisar Case


On Tuesday, Ghaisar’s parents will gather outside the Interior Department’s headquarters at E Street NW between 18th and 19th Streets in Washington, D.C. to protest MacLean’s appointment.

Officials said Ghaisar had gotten into a fender-bender on the George Washington Parkway in Alexandria the night of Nov. 17, 2017. They said he was not at fault for the accident, but he left the scene.

Police said the two U.S. Park Police officers followed Ghaisar and pulled him over in the Mount Vernon area. Video released by the Fairfax County Police Department shows that Ghaisar took off and stopped two more times before the officers fired nine shots into his car.

Police said Ghaisar was unarmed and had no drugs in his car.

The two Park Police officers who shot and killed Ghaisar, Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, have been indicted on manslaughter charges in Fairfax County, where the shooting took place.

But the case has been moved to federal court after the officers claimed they have immunity under the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says federal law is the “supreme law of the land” and takes priority over state law.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.