HollyMatkinAlexandria, VA – A man who shot an Alexandria police officer in the head in 2013 may soon be conditionally released to live on his own, according to the officer.
Kashif Bashir opened fire on Alexandria Police Officer Peter Laboy on Feb. 27, 2013, after the motorcycle patrol officer pulled Bashir over in Old Town, WRC reported.
Officers pursued Bashir, who eventually crashed in Mt. Vernon, and took him into custody.
While Bashir sat in jail awaiting trial for attempted capital murder and aggravated malicious wounding, the injured officer struggled to recover from the effects of his horrific gunshot wound.
He had to learn to speak and to walk again, and was ultimately forced to retire from the career he loved due to his traumatic brain injury, WRC reported.
A long scar across his head serves as a sobering reminder of the miraculous recovery the father of four has made, but his life has irreversibly changed.
“I’m not 100 percent the way I was before,” Laboy told WRC in a recent interview.
During his 2014 trial, psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Scheneman testified that Bashir was a paranoid schizophrenic. He said that on the day of the shooting, a voice told Bashir to rape or murder a woman, shoot an officer, and to lead police on a pursuit.
On Oct. 2, 2014, Bashir was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was remanded to the custody of the Commonwealth’s Commissioner of Behavioral Health, WUSA reported.
He was later transferred to the North Virginia Mental Health Institute, but his mental health treatment providers and lawyer recently determined that he was well enough to live on his own in an apartment in Prince William County, WRC reported.
Bashir has also already been granted permission to leave the facility to make unsupervised trips to a mosque and other locations.
“Up to this time, I cannot even drive, so why am I suffering from what he did and now he’s going to get out and walk free on the street?” Laboy asked.
The former officer said that his injury has contributed to the breakup of his marriage, and that he is concerned about how news of Bashir’s release may affect his youngest sons, who are now 9 and 11 years old.
“Supposedly he’s not able to get a gun, but…anybody can get a gun anywhere,” Laboy told WRC. “And I don’t know what’s in his mind.”
“I hope that what I went through doesn’t happen to anybody else,” the former officer said.
The outcome of Bashir’s request for conditional release will be determined on June 7.