Reps want FBI to release 911 recordings in Ghaisar case

Rep. Don Beyer and two other federal representatives have written to the FBI demanding that the agency release audio of the 911 calls connected to the shooting of Bijan Ghaisar on Fort Hunt Road in 2017.

Beyer had previously asked for the recordings to be released, but the FBI did not comply. Arlington County, whose communication center handled the initial 911 call after Ghaisar’s vehicle was involved in a fender bender in Alexandria, had also previously rebuffed a Freedom of Information Act request to release 911 recordings. That request had been made by the Ghaisar family’s lawyer.

Beyer said now that the Justice Department has declined to move forward with a case against the two officers who shot Ghaisar, there’s no excuse for not releasing the recordings.

“Given that the Department of Justice review of the case is concluded, there should be no impediment to its disclosure now,” said Beyer, who co-authored the letter to the FBI with Rep. Jennifer Wexton and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. “As you know, we found the two-year period it took to resolve the case unacceptable and remain concerned with the result.”

All three Congressional representatives attended a Sunday ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial held by Ghaisar’s family and supporters. It marked the second anniversary since the shooting, which happened at the intersection of Alexandria Avenue and Fort Hunt Road on November 17, 2017.

On that evening U.S. Park Police officers pursued Ghaisar after spotting his Jeep Grand Cherokee on the George Washington Parkway just north of the Fairfax County border. He had been involved in fender-bender crash on Parkway north of Old Town a few minutes earlier, but left the scene.

Ghaisar led the officers — and a Fairfax County Police officer — on a chase that eventually turned off the Parkway into the Fort Hunt area before ending at the intersection of Alexandria Avenue.

Two Park Police officers fired a total of 10 shots at Ghaisar as he slowly drove the Grand Cherokee around the Park Police officer’s SUV at the intersection. At least four shots hit him in the head, according to a Justice Department letter. Ghaisar was unarmed at the time, and his family has said he had no criminal record.

Ghaisar, 25, died 10 days after the shooting. The FBI investigated the shooting, taking nearly two years before announcing last week that they would not be filing charges against the two officers who used their weapons.

Beyer blasted the FBI’s handling of the case after the Justice Department announced no charges would be filed against the officers, saying “this will not end here.”