ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A judge has rejected a request from Justice Department lawyers to delay a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of a northern Virginia man shot and killed by U.S. Park Police in 2017 after a highway chase.
The judge ruled Friday that the civil trial will go forward as scheduled in November.
Lawyers for the federal government, which is the defendant in the case, say they can’t build a proper defense because the two officers who shot 25-year-old Bijan Ghaisar are invoking their Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to discuss their rationale for opening fire.
Ghaisar’s parents say their son was unarmed and the shooting was unjustified.
