An off-duty security guard in Seattle has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage boy who was returning a defective airsoft gun to a sporting goods shop
Hazrat Ali Rohani, 17, was visiting a Big 5 branch in Renton, Washington with his friends last Wednesday evening when 51-year-old Aaron Brown Myers approached the group with a gun in his hand, the friends said.
Myers later told investigators that he believed the three teenagers were about to commit a robbery and felt “a duty to act”, claiming that the teenagers repeatedly ignored his commands to surrender.
However, surveillance footage contradicts Myers’ account of events, according to a police statement seen by The Independent.
Myers was not on duty protecting the shop and told police that he was staking the parking lot out on his own initiative while his 13-year-old son took a jujitsu class next door.
“He saw these kids walking inside with their airsoft guns, and he took it upon himself to confront them,” a spokesperson for the Renton Police Department told Seattle broadcaster KOMO.
“The 17-year-olds were trying to tell him they were just BB guns, but the altercation intensified so rapidly that, unfortunately, the gun was fired.”
Myers is now in police custody with a $2m bail after a judge found probable cause to suspect him of second-degree murder. A court hearing on Monday afternoon will determine whether he is formally charged.
The incident comes after two separate vigils were held nearby for Aayden Hayes, a 13-year-old shot dead in Bellevue on May 29, and Amarr Murphy-Paine, a 17-year-old killed while attempting to break up a fight during lunch break at his Seattle high school.
In a probable cause statement filed by the Renton Police Department, investigators say that Myers was “distraught and crying” after his arrest and had to be given a trash can to vomit into.
Once he calmed down, he told investigators that he was a licensed security guard and was voluntarily conducting “overwatch” in the parking lot because he had seen “numerous crimes” occur there.
Myers said that he thought the boys were carrying a Glock and “felt like he did not have time to call 911”. He approached them from behind and threatened them with his gun, telling them to drop their weapons.
“Myers said he was continuing to give commands to the three individuals to put their hands up, but they were not listening to his commands... Myers stated the three males did not ever comply,” the police report says.
Surveillance footage allegedly showed that two of the teens, including Rohani, reacted to Myers’ actions by putting their hands in front of their bodies and extending their fingers to show they were carrying no weapons. It’s not clear whether the third teen was visible in the footage.
At that point, Myers told police, one of the teenagers reached into his waistband for a gun and refused to stop when ordered. Myers feared for his life and shot the boy “numerous times”.
Surveillance footage showed the boy’s right hand “briefly lower[ing] to his waist area” before being shot, police said.
For their part, the two surviving teenagers told police that they had repeatedly informed Myers that they were only carrying “BB guns”.
Airsoft guns are replica guns that fire plastic pellets and are used in non-lethal shooting matches similar to paintball. In casual contexts, they are often referred to as BB guns.
Comments