Park Police Officers Want Immunity After Shooting Unarmed Man

The lawyers for two U.S. Park Police officers are hoping a federal judge will give their clients immunity against Virginia prosecutors who want to charge them with manslaughter in the 2017 fatal shooting of Bijan Ghaisar.

A hearing for officers Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya is scheduled to take place on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.

At the time of the incident, Amaya and Vinyard were covering the George Washington Memorial Parkway when they received a call on the radio about a hit-and-run incident.

Ghaisar’s black Jeep was initially identified as the striking vehicle. However, the dispatcher later informed the officers that a red Toyota was actually the striking vehicle and the Jeep only left the scene.

Despite acknowledging the updated information, the officers pursued Ghaisar, which resulted in a stop-and-go chase.

Ghaisar, who was unarmed, stopped twice but drove off due to the officers drawing their guns. After he stopped for the third time, he was shot and killed by Vinyard and Amaya.

Typically, federal officers cannot be prosecuted by the state if they were performing their duties and are given immunity. However, Virginia prosecutors are arguing that the police officers committed a crime by fatally shooting Ghaisar and should have never chased him.

Amaya and Vinyard’s attorneys want the court to dismiss the manslaughter charges based on the “supremacy clause” of the Constitution, which means the state must comply with federal law.

Prosecutors believe immunity cannot be applied to Amaya and Vinyard, who have been indicted in Fairfax County on involuntary manslaughter charges, because they went beyond their duties as police officers when they shot Ghaisar.

“The Supremacy Clause,” Virginia prosecutors wrote in court documents, “has never contemplated immunity from state charges for federal officers who kill outside the scope of their federal authority.”

The hearing to dismiss the charges is scheduled to last five days. The judge is expected to issue a ruling sometime in the fall.