Jurors found Aaron Brown Myers guilty after prosecutors said he turned suspicion into a fatal shooting.
RENTON, Wash. — A jury’s murder verdict against Aaron Brown Myers marked a sharp answer to his claim that he acted to stop a robbery outside a sporting goods store.
The case centered on private action in a public parking lot. Myers was an armed security guard, but he was off duty and not assigned to protect the Big 5 Sporting Goods store where 17-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani was killed. Prosecutors said that difference mattered. They argued Myers had no authority to patrol the shopping center, confront teenagers or use deadly force based on a belief that a crime might happen.
Myers told police he believed he saw a handgun and thought the teens were preparing to rob the store. That claim shaped the defense from the start. The teens, prosecutors said, were carrying BB or airsoft guns because they were going to the store for help with a return or exchange. The jury had to decide whether Myers’ belief made the shooting lawful, or whether his actions made him responsible for the death that followed.
The verdict showed jurors accepted the state’s view. Myers was convicted of second-degree murder in Rohani’s death and second-degree assault for his conduct toward another teen at the scene. The convictions followed testimony about surveillance video, police statements and the sequence of movement before the shots. Prosecutors said Rohani and his friends said the guns were not real. They said Rohani showed empty hands and was struck after turning away.
The June 5, 2024, confrontation began while Myers waited near the shopping center after taking his son to a martial arts class. He later described his role as watching the area because of crime concerns. Prosecutors turned that statement against him, saying he appointed himself to a security role in a place where he had no job assignment. The defense said the same facts showed why Myers was alert and why a realistic-looking replica could trigger fear.
Trial testimony placed the parking lot, not the store aisle, at the center of the case. The teens had not entered the store to rob it. There was no completed theft. There was no evidence that Rohani fired or possessed a real firearm. The fatal encounter happened before any store employee could handle the return or exchange. Prosecutors said Myers acted too soon, with too much force, and without confirming what he thought he saw.
Defense attorney Mark Middaugh argued that Myers had only seconds to judge the situation. He said Myers was trained to fire at center mass and believed a teen was reaching for a weapon. That argument asked jurors to see the case through the fear of an armed guard who thought a gun was in play. Prosecutors asked jurors to measure that fear against what the video showed and what the teens were saying.
The jury also heard that Rohani was shot multiple times, including in the back. Prosecutors said the number and direction of the shots mattered because they showed Rohani was not attacking Myers when the fatal force continued. Reports from the case described Rohani calling for his mother during the encounter. The defense did not dispute that the shooting was tragic, but it argued that tragedy alone did not prove murder. Jurors concluded the state met its burden.
The assault count widened the legal focus beyond Rohani. Prosecutors said Myers used his gun to control another teen, holding him at gunpoint during the confrontation. That charge was important because it let jurors judge the whole encounter, not only the final shots. A guilty verdict on assault meant jurors found unlawful force before or during the shooting sequence that ended Rohani’s life.
After the verdict, Myers’ status changed at once. He had been released on home monitoring while awaiting trial. Once convicted, he was taken into custody. Courtroom accounts described Myers and his supporters reacting with emotion before officers led him away. The moment closed one part of the case and opened another, with sentencing set for 9 a.m. July 21 in King County Superior Court. The possible prison term is measured in decades. Prosecutors have said Myers faces a sentencing range that could exceed 20 years and reach roughly 28 years because of the murder conviction, the assault conviction and the firearm enhancement. The judge will set the final sentence after hearing from both sides. Rohani’s family may speak at that hearing, and Myers may also address the court before the sentence is imposed.
Rohani’s death also left a record beyond the criminal case. He was a Kent-Meridian High School student and one of three teenagers at the shopping center that evening. The public details do not show that he committed a robbery or threatened store staff. What remains is a documented sequence in which a retail return involving a replica gun became a fatal confrontation with an armed adult who said he was trying to prevent crime.
The legal system has now answered the main question of guilt. It found that Myers’ belief, training and stated fear did not excuse the shooting. The next question is punishment. Myers remains in custody until the July 21 sentencing hearing, when the judge will decide how the verdict translates into prison time.
Author note: Last updated June 1, 2026.