Washington teen shot dead by security guard while returning replica gun to store
Off-duty officer reportedly shot 17-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani, mistaking his airsoft gun for a real firearm
A teenager trying to return a malfunctioning replica gun that shoots plastic projectiles to a sporting goods store in Washington state recently was shot to death by an off-duty security guard who believed the boy was holding a real gun and planned to rob the business, according to authorities.
The man arrested in the killing, 51-year-old Aaron Brown Myers, told police that he wasn’t working at the time he fatally shot Hazrat Ali Rohani, who was returning a malfunctioning airsoft gun to the Big 5 sporting goods store in the community of Renton. But he had offered to keep watch due to alleged rising crime in the area.
Investigators said security footage, which hasn’t been publicly released, contradicted Myers’ statements to police, leading to his arrest.
As described by police, Rohani’s death perpetuates a spate of shootings across the US that have victimized people who were killed while approaching homes or businesses for an ultimately innocent reason.
Experts have said one reason that the US, which has more guns than residents has a disproportionate number of those shootings stems from people assuming – often incorrectly – that they can use firearms with impunity thanks to lax weapons laws and self-defense statutes that are generally permissive.
Myers was waiting for his son to come out of his jujitsu classes at the martial arts studio next to Big 5 when three teenagers walked past his car, including one who held an airsoft gun that Myers said appeared to be a Glock pistol.
Police said Myers then pointed the gun issued to him for his security job at the teens and told them to put their hands in the air. Meeghan Black, a Renton police spokesperson, told CBS that the teenagers immediately complied and tried to explain their gun wasn’t real. But Black said Myers fired several shots after claiming “the confrontation intensified … rapidly”, hitting and killing 17-year-old Rohani.
Police said Myers stood over Rohani and continued to shoot, which he claimed he did because he believed one of the teen’s companions was reaching for a gun in Rohani’s waistband.
A statement from police said King county sheriff’s office deputies were completing training exercise nearby when they heard the shooting. They tried to provide first aid to Rohani, but he died at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
The other teens present at the incident told police they were “dealing with functioning issues on the airsoft gun and wanted to take it back” to the store to either return or exchange it, officials said. The teens said they needed help with “a magazine issue [Rohani] was having with the firearm”.
Myers faces two felony counts of second-degree murder and assault. He could received a maximum punishment of life imprisonment if convicted as charged.
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