Aaron Brown Myers faces sentencing in July after jurors found him guilty of murder and assault.

RENTON, Wash. — A King County jury convicted an off-duty security guard of second-degree murder and assault after he fatally shot 17-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Renton.

The verdict moved a case that began in a parking lot in June 2024 into its final court stage. Prosecutors said Aaron Brown Myers, 52, wrongly treated three teenagers as armed robbers when they were going to the store with BB or airsoft guns. The defense said Myers believed he was facing a real threat. Jurors rejected that account after hearing testimony, watching video and reviewing what Myers told police after the shooting.

Myers was found guilty of second-degree murder in Rohani’s death and second-degree assault for pointing a gun at another teen during the encounter. The verdict also included a firearm enhancement, which can add prison time under Washington law. King County Superior Court ordered Myers into custody after the verdict, ending the home monitoring status he had while the case moved toward trial. His sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 21.

The shooting happened about 7:38 p.m. June 5, 2024, outside the store on Grady Way. Rohani and two other teenagers had gone to the shopping center with BB or airsoft guns, seeking help with a return or exchange. Myers was not working security at the store. He had taken his son to a nearby martial arts class and later told investigators he had been watching the parking lot because he was concerned about crime there.

Prosecutors told jurors that Myers approached the teens with a firearm and escalated a brief encounter into deadly violence. They said the teenagers tried to explain that the guns were not real firearms. Court records and trial testimony described Rohani showing empty hands and moving away before he was shot. Prosecutors said Myers fired seven times, including shots that struck Rohani in the back. Rohani died at the scene. Defense attorney Mark Middaugh argued at trial that Myers acted in a split second based on what he believed he saw. Middaugh said Myers was trained to aim for center mass and believed one of the teens was reaching for a gun. “He followed the training that he’d received,” Middaugh said in court coverage of the trial. Prosecutors answered that the danger Myers described did not match the video, the witness accounts or the physical evidence.

The case turned on the gap between fear and legal justification. Myers told police he thought a robbery was about to happen. Prosecutors said he had no authority to police the shopping center and no proof that the teens planned any crime. They also said the teens’ repeated statements that the guns were not real should have stopped the confrontation. Jurors deliberated for about a day and a half before returning the guilty verdict.

Rohani’s death drew attention across the Seattle area because of his age, the public setting and the fact that the object mistaken for a handgun was a BB or airsoft gun. The shooting also forced jurors to weigh a private citizen’s claim of self-defense against the limits of armed intervention. Prosecutors said Myers acted on an assumption. The defense said he believed he was protecting people in the area. The jury’s verdict showed it found the state’s version more persuasive.

Rohani was a student at Kent-Meridian High School. Reports from the case described him as one of three teenagers at the shopping center that night. The court record did not show that Rohani or the other teens had robbed the store or threatened Myers before the confrontation. The central facts at trial instead focused on who moved first, what was said in the parking lot and whether Myers had any legal reason to fire after the teens said the guns were not real.

After the verdict was read, Myers became emotional and hugged supporters before officers took him into custody. The judge’s decision to remand him meant he would remain jailed while awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors said the expected sentencing range could stretch beyond 20 years because of the murder conviction, the assault conviction and the firearm enhancement. The court will decide the final prison term at the July hearing.

The shooting remains under review through the sentencing process, where lawyers can file recommendations and family members may address the court. Myers will have a chance to speak before punishment is imposed. The key legal question of guilt has been answered by the jury, but the punishment has not. The next milestone is the July 21 sentencing hearing in King County Superior Court.

Author note: Last updated June 1, 2026.