Off-duty security guard found guilty in teen's death outside Renton Big 5
A security guard from Newcastle was convicted of murder Friday in the 2024 killing of a teenage boy he shot seven times while off duty outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Renton.
A King County Superior Court jury in Kent deliberated for two days before delivering its unanimous verdict, finding 52-year-old Aaron Myers guilty of second-degree assault and second-degree murder.
After the verdict, Judge Nikole Hecklinger ordered that Myers be returned to jail custody as he awaits sentencing on July 21. He faces between 10 and 18 years imprisonment for the two convictions, plus an additional 10 years for a firearm enhancement.
Myers has been under electronic home monitoring since July 2024, when he posted bond on his $2 million bail and was released from jail.
He maintained a stoic expression Friday morning as the presiding juror announced the verdict. He eventually turned and embraced his wife, who wept as two sheriff's deputies entered the courtroom and approached them.
The verdict closed a tragic, nearly two-year chapter for the family of 17-year-old Hazrat "Ali" Rohani, the Kent Meridian High School student Myers shot and killed June 5, 2024, in the parking lot of a Renton strip mall.
Friday also marked what would have been Rohani's 19th birthday.
Rohani, his cousin and friend were heading toward the Big 5 to ask for help with two BB guns when Myers saw them walking by his truck, prosecutors wrote in court filings.
Myers - assuming the boys' BB guns were real handguns and that they were about to commit an armed robbery - rushed out of his car and toward the boys, pointing his loaded gun at them and demanding that they get on the ground, court records show.
One of the boys put his BB gun on the ground before Myers grabbed him by the hair and forced him onto the pavement, still pointing his gun at the boy's head. He then turned his gun on Rohani, who had been backing away from Myers with his hands raised. Rohani started turning around and Myers fired 10 times, striking Rohani once in the side and six times in the back.
About 20 seconds passed between when Myers got out of his truck and when he fired his last bullet, court records show.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, Myers' defense attorney, Mark Middaugh, argued that Myers "feared for his life," and was therefore "absolutely entitled" to shoot Rohani when he thought he saw the teen reaching for what appeared to be a real handgun. Calling 911 and waiting for police to respond "was not a reasonable option" when Myers believed people were in "grave danger."
"Aaron Myers is not a murderer," Middaugh told jurors on Wednesday. "He did not want this to happen. He did not want anyone to get hurt."
Meanwhile, King County senior deputy prosecutor Elaine Lee argued that Myers, who is white, acted "purely on emotion" when he saw "three brown boys" and immediately assumed that they were criminals. The boys, fearing for their lives, all complied with Myers' demands and repeatedly yelled out that they were carrying BB guns. But Myers ignored them, escalating the situation "every step of the way" and firing at Rohani enough times to lose count as the unarmed teen tried to get away, Lee said.
"Myers decided to shoot (Rohani) once. Twice. Over and over, continuing to shoot as Ali fell to his knees and hands. Continuing to shoot as Ali fell face down to the ground," Lee said. "Nothing Mr. Myers did throughout this entire incident was reasonable."
Myers was not aware that the King County sheriff's office had just finished a day of undercover training nearby. Within seconds of the shooting, deputies swarmed Myers, demanding he drop his gun and get on the ground.
Paramedics tried saving Rohani, but he died at the scene. They found his BB gun inside his pant leg after cutting through his clothing, court records show.
A Renton police officer who responded to the scene can be heard in body-worn camera footage saying, This is an air gun, as he leans over Rohani's BB gun.
Renton police arrested Myers, who told investigators that the boys never complied with his commands to raise their hands in the air, and that he fired after seeing Rohani grab the gun at his waistband.
Security camera footage of the shooting shows the boys, including Rohani, retreating from Myers with their hands in the air. Rohani appears to drop his hands to clutch his abdomen as he is struck repeatedly from behind by bullets and collapses, court records show.
Lee's closing argument was punctuated by sobs from Rohani's mother. Middaugh requested that Hecklinger remove the mother from the courtroom, but the judge did not, instead asking people inside the courtroom to excuse themselves if they became too emotional to hear court proceedings.
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