An off-duty security guard has been charged with second-degree murder after prosecutors allege he fatally shot a 17-year-old six times in the back, the AP is reporting. The teen and his friends were attempting to return a toy gun, mistaken by the guard as a real firearm, to a sporting goods store.
According to King County prosecutors, Aaron Brown Myers, 51, was charged on Monday for the death of Hazrat Ali Rohani outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods Store in Renton, Washington. In addition to the murder charge, Myers faces a second-degree assault charge for allegedly holding another teen at gunpoint.
The incident occurred on June 5 at approximately 7:30 p.m. Rohani and two other teens were on their way to return a malfunctioning airsoft gun to the store. The group passed in front of Myers, who was sitting in his vehicle waiting to pick up his son from a martial arts class.
Myers informed police that he believed he saw one of the teens carrying a Glock handgun and another placing a firearm into his waistband. Believing he needed to intervene in an armed robbery, Myers said he felt he did not have time to call 911, the AP reported. Instead, he confronted the teens with his own gun—a real one.
As Myers approached, one of the teens stepped aside while the other two stopped, raised their hands, and placed the airsoft gun on the sidewalk. They repeatedly told Myers that it was a “BB gun” and not a real firearm, according to witness accounts. Despite these assurances, Myers continued to escalate the situation.
According to the probable cause document filed by Renton police and reported on by the AP, Myers then pushed one of the boys onto the sidewalk and straddled him. He continued to point his firearm at Rohani, who held his hands out in front of him to show they were empty. As Rohani began to back away, Myers opened fire, hitting the teen once in the right side and six times in the back.
Video footage shows Rohani clutching his abdomen as he fell to the ground, calling out for his mother. One of the other teens ran for cover and called 911. Rohani died at the scene, and police immediately took Myers into custody.
Myers’ lawyer, Michelle Scudder, said in an email that Myers sincerely believed he was witnessing the beginning of a violent crime and wanted to stop it before anyone got hurt.
“Mr. Myers and his family are devastated by this tragedy and the fact that it resulted in the loss of a young man’s life,” Scudder said. “We are confident that over the course of this investigation the evidence will show that Mr. Myers’ only intent that day was to protect himself and others from serious harm or death.”
Prosecutors, however, argue that Myers failed to take appropriate actions.
“The defendant failed to take the obvious step of securing the toy gun, rather than assaulting the teen who had carried it,” King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren Burke said in a court filing.
Myers is being held in King County jail on $2 million bail, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 24 in Kent, Washington.
“Only a high bail, electronic home detention, and surrender of all firearms will protect the community from an untrained civilian who believes he has a duty to shoot people who have not hurt anyone,” Burke said.
The case serves as a lesson to anyone who would be too quick to intervene in a situation on which they don’t have all the facts and certainly do not correctly read as they get involved in it. It also underscores the need for children and even adults either carrying or playing with toy guns to be cautious they are not mistook for real guns. A number of recent articles have focused on the misuse of Orbeez water gel guns to shoot people, which can leave bruises and welts on the skin and even put someone’s eye out similar to a pellet gun. Even these toys, used properly or misused, could result in someone with a firearm, including police, to misidentify a situation and reply to a perceived assault with deadly force.
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