Trial starts in fatal shooting near Renton Big 5 Sporting Goods store
KENT - Within 30 seconds of noticing three teenage boys walking toward a Renton Big 5 Sporting Goods, 52-year-old Aaron Myers forced one to the ground at gunpoint and fired 10 times at another boy who had tried to flee.
Nearly two years later, attorneys delivered opening statements on Thursday in Kent to a King County Superior Court jury tasked with determining whether Myers - an armed, off-duty security guard - acted lawfully when he pointed his gun at the boys and fired at 17-year-old Hazrat "Ali" Rohani, striking him with seven bullets and killing him.
Myers' defense attorney, Mark Middaugh, argued that Myers had to act fast on June 5, 2024, when he spotted "men" walking toward the Big 5 Sporting Goods on Grady Way with what looked like real handguns.
Myers had "every reason to believe" the group was about to harm, rob or kill people, and he lawfully fired at Rohani to protect himself and others - including his teenage son, who was taking a jujitsu class at a neighboring martial arts studio at the time, Middaugh said.
"Mr. Myers didn't wake up that day wanting to shoot anybody," Middaugh told the jury. "But he also couldn't ignore what he saw."
Meanwhile, senior deputy King County prosecutor Elaine Lee argued Myers, who is white, assumed the three "dark-skinned boys" were dangerous after "nothing more than a glance."
Despite the teens repeatedly yelling that their BB guns were "not real" and raising their empty hands in the air, Myers decided to assault one of the boys who had already put his BB gun on the ground, then open fire on Rohani as he tried to run away, Lee said.
"Aaron Myers chose to see danger where none existed," Lee said. "This tragedy didn't happen because the boys posed any real threat, but because Myers acted based on assumptions, and fired without hesitation."
The attorneys told jurors they would watch security camera footage and hear testimony from people who witnessed the fatal shooting to help them determine whether Myers is guilty of second-degree assault and second-degree murder.
Myers, who lives in Newcastle with his wife and two teenage children, pleaded not guilty to the charges about two weeks after the shooting. He was released from King County Jail to electronic home monitoring after posting bond on his $2 million bail.
Prosecutors have accused Myers of being a threat to public safety because of his self-imposed "duty to intervene," despite not being a police officer, and that he "believes he has a duty to shoot people who have not hurt anyone," court records show.
In court filings, prosecutors have pointed to a March 2022 incident when Myers called 911 to report seeing a person on a bike pointing a gun at people in Renton. He followed the person through multiple stores, telling police he might have to shoot. But when officers arrived, they determined the person was carrying a silver metal object that was likely a bike part, and "posed no threat."
Over the next two years, Myers created his own security guard company, Midnight Sun Operation, and joined the city of Newcastle's public safety committee, a six-person group tasked with recommending ways to make the city safer. The city publicly announced the committee one day before Myers shot Rohani.
Newcastle Mayor Robert Clark removed Myers from the committee on June 11, 2024, the day after Myers was charged in King County Superior Court.
In December 2025, Myers asked to have the case transferred to another county like Spokane or Yakima because of the "vitriolic community response" to news coverage about him. He submitted examples of people's comments suggesting he is racist and deserves the death penalty. His request was denied.
On Thursday, members of Rohani's family sitting inside Judge Nikole Hecklinger's courtroom wept as Lee displayed a photo of the teenager dressed in blue and smiling at the camera. The Kent Meridian High School student who went by "Ali" was the eldest of six children and was one year away from graduating, his father, Jamaluddin Rohani, said in 2024.
Myers, wearing a gray suit jacket and brown loafers, sat by Middaugh and mostly stared ahead toward the judge's desk, a yellow legal notepad sitting untouched on the desk in front of him.
The day of the fatal shooting started normally for Myers and the trio of teenagers.
Rohani was hanging out with his cousin and friend when they decided to go to the Big 5 Sporting Goods in Renton to ask about returning one of their BB guns and getting help with another, which had been malfunctioning. They planned to go into the woods to shoot targets the next day, something they often did for fun, according to Lee and court filings.
Meanwhile, Myers finished his shift doing security for Nestlé's office in downtown Seattle and drove to Renton to pick up his son from his jujitsu class. While waiting inside his truck and scrolling on his cellphone, Myers started "watching over the parking lot," where he had once seen a fight break out and drug dealing by an ATM, Middaugh said.
Around 7:30 p.m., Myers glanced up when he noticed three boys walking in front of his truck. Myers saw one of them reach into his sweatshirt pocket and briefly pull out what Myers assumed was a handgun, then put it back into his pocket, Lee said. One of the other boys had what Myers assumed was a gun tucked in the waistband of his pants, court records show.
Almost immediately, Myers got out of his car and drew his own gun, pointing it at the boys while walking quickly toward them and shouting commands to stop and get on the ground, Lee said.
Security camera footage captured inside the Big 5 entrance shows one of the boys setting his BB gun on the ground and raising his hands in the air just before Myers grabs him by the hair, shoves him to the ground and starts firing at something out of the camera's view, court records show.
Additional footage captured inside the martial arts studio next door shows Rohani walking backward with his hands in the air. He appears to start turning around when he is struck by bullets, falls to his knees and collapses face down on the pavement, according to Lee and court records.
Only about 20 seconds passed between when Myers got out of his truck and his last gunshot was fired, according to a trial memorandum filed in March.
Prosecutors' first witness, a King County sheriff's office deputy who was at the Renton strip mall parking lot the night of the shooting, told jurors she looked up when she heard someone shout, "Stop!"
Myers was not aware that the sheriff's office had just finished a day of undercover training nearby, and that many deputies were getting into their cars around the same time he first spotted the boys walking by his truck.
Deputy Maria Martin said she heard shouting and looked up to see a white man striding quickly across the lot with his arm fully extended and pointing a gun at three boys. At first, Martin assumed it was another one of the sheriff's office's undercover training scenarios. She watched the boys comply with Myers when he yelled at them to put their hands up and ordered one to drop his weapon, she said.
Martin said she then saw Myers point his gun and repeatedly fire at one of the boys as he tried to turn around and walk away.
Martin and other deputies swarmed Myers and the boys seconds later and ordered everyone to get on the ground and drop their weapons. Paramedics attempted to save Rohani, but he died at the scene. His BB gun was found inside his pant leg after paramedics cut through his clothing, court records show.
Body-worn camera footage captured by Renton police shortly after the shooting showed an officer leaning over Rohani's BB gun and saying, "This is an air gun."
Renton police officers arrested Myers and brought him to their headquarters for questioning. He told detectives he saw one of the boys pull out a handgun and thought, ‘Oh great, I guess they're gonna rob the place,'" according to a transcript of the interview filed in court records.
Myers told investigators the boys never complied with his commands to raise their hands in the air or get on the ground.
"I was like, why would you act like this when someone's pointing a weapon at you?" he said. "Do I look like a clown or something?"
Myers later said he started firing at Rohani after seeing him grab the gun at his waistband, the transcript shows.
A person eventually came into the room and told Myers that prosecutors found evidence to book him into jail on a charge of second-degree murder, according to court records.
"I can't believe this, Myers said.
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