A federal judge today decided to move the case against two U.S. Park Police officers who killed unarmed driver Bijan Ghaisar from state court to federal court. The officers’ lawyers requested the move, arguing the officers were immune from state prosecution because they were acting as federal agents at the time of the shooting. In federal court, the defense attorneys plan to ask for the case to be dismissed on those grounds.

Ghaisar was shot to death in 2017 after a traffic stop on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Ghaisar’s family has been seeking due process ever since. At the hearing, family members sat right behind the two officers.

“It was the first time that we saw Bijan’s murderer in person, so that’s been very traumatic,” Kelly Ghaisar, Bijan’s mother, told DCist after the hearing. She said it was particularly disappointing coming the same week that Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd. “I somehow thought that maybe things were about to change,” she said. “After everything that’s happened since last summer, here we are in cases like this and we had to be disappointed yet again.”

At the hearing at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge Claude Hilton sided with the defendants. “These are officers of the United States,” said  “These defendants have a right to exert a defense of immunity.”

The two officers, Alejandro Amaya and Lucas Vinyard, were indicted for manslaughter last October by a grand jury convened by Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.

“I was disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised,” Descano told DCist after the judge’s decision. “This was somewhat expected, but in reality, I’m pleased that after months of inaction, we are actually moving forward on getting to a resolution.”

Still, Descano argued the case should have stayed in the state court system.

“We wanted to keep it in state court because this was a crime that happened in Virginia. The victim was a Virginia resident, and we have an interest in hearing it in Virginia courts.”

Descano said he and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring are “laser focused on continuing the fight and pursuing justice in this case.”

Amaya and Vinyard shot 25-year-old Ghaisar to death on November 17, 2017, after a pursuing him on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. After a fender bender, the officers followed Ghaisar with sirens blaring. He pulled over two times, but when the officers approached with guns drawn Ghaisar drove off again. Finally, he pulled over a third time, and as he started to drive away, the officers shot him five times, according to an FBI investigation.

In 2019, federal prosecutors declined to charge Vinyard and Amaya. Both officers remain employed by U.S. Park Police, and are on paid leave.

Attorneys representing the two officers argued at the hearing that the case should be transferred to federal court, where they can seek dismissal of the case under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. Under that clause, they argued, federal officers acting in their official capacity are immune from state prosecution.

Defense attorney Daniel Crowley, representing Amaya, said, “In the discharge of his duty he had to discharge his weapon because he was in danger and other officers were in danger as well as the public.”

Ghaisar’s family has also filed a $25 million federal suit against the Park Police for excessive use of force — Judge Hilton has postponed that trial indefinitely.

This story was updated to include an interview with Kelly Ghaisar.