Man charged with murder after allegedly shooting teen 7 times near Renton Big 5 Sporting Goods
King County prosecutors on Monday charged 51-year-old Aaron Brown Myers of Newcastle with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy outside of a Renton sporting goods store on Wednesday.
Officials say Myers shot the boy, Hazrat Ali Rohani, seven times following a confrontation in the parking lot of the Big 5 Sporting Goods store on Grady Way. Rohani, who friends say was attempting to return a malfunctioning airsoft gun to the store, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Myers also faces a second-degree assault charge in connection with his alleged attempt to apprehend another teen during the confrontation, which was caught on surveillance video.
Myers approached the boys after seeing an airsoft gun in one's pocket and assuming they intended to commit an armed robbery, "despite the fact that he is not a member of law enforcement and thus has not been trained in how to safely prevent crime," according to charging documents.
The teens complied with Myers' commands, "putting their hands in the air and placing the airsoft pistol he’d seen on the ground, and telling him it was just a 'BB gun,'" prosecutors wrote.
Myers had pinned one boy, identified in documents only as B.A., to the ground. At some point, Rohani attempted to back away from the confrontation, his hands still in the air. That's when officials say Myers fired multiple shots at Rohani, hitting him once in the side and six times in the back.
Myers told police he "shot [his] firearm, hitting [Rohani]," according to court documents.
"Rather than calling 911 or waiting for any evidence at all that could confirm or deny his assumption, he claimed he had a 'duty to intervene' and did so. The defendant exited his vehicle, pointed his own very real firearm at the three teenagers, and rapidly approached them," court records state.
Myers was detained by officers at the scene.
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Court records indicate that several nearby law enforcement officers saw and heard parts of the confrontation leading up to Rohani's death. It's unclear from court records whether they made an attempt to intervene prior to the shooting.
Prosecutors set Myers' bail at $2 million, citing "the likelihood that the defendant will fail to appear in response to a summons and that he may commit a violent offense."
Court documents also reference an incident in March 2022, during which Myers "followed a person carrying a metal object that he believed to be a gun from one store, through another store, and away from the second store, all because he may need to 'intervene' and he 'might have to shoot' the person." In that instance, law enforcement officers intervened before anyone was hurt.
