A man who shot a 17-year-old boy in the back seven times after mistakenly believing the teen was about to commit an armed robbery will spend 25 years in prison.
A man who shot a 17-year-old boy in the back seven times after mistakenly believing the teen was about to commit an armed robbery will spend 25 years in prison, a judge ordered Wednesday morning.
Earlier this year, a jury convicted Aaron Brown Myers, 53, of second-degree murder and assault for the death of 17-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani in June 2024.
During an emotional sentencing hearing in King County Superior Court, Rohani's family spoke about the impact of his loss.
“I and my family have forgotten how to love, how to smile, how to have fun, and how to live a life like everyone else around us," said Jammaludin Rohani, the father of Hazrat Ali Rohani. "All of these are taken from us by someone who does not deserve to walk our streets with a firearm and evil intentions.”
Rohani called Myers an "armed, reckless man with no other intention than to kill."
Myers was in his truck waiting to pick up his son from a martial arts studio in a shopping center parking lot on Grady Way in Renton when he saw Hazrat Ali Rohani and two friends walking toward a Big 5 sporting goods store with BB guns.
Myers claimed he believed the teens were about to commit an armed robbery at the Big 5, so he confronted them with his own gun and ordered them to stop and get on the ground. Surveillance video shows Myers grab one of the teens, then shoot Rohani in the back repeatedly.
Detectives from the King County Sheriff's Office happened to be conducting training in the same parking lot and immediately ran over and detained Myers and started providing first aid to Rohani. Despite those efforts, Rohani died from his wounds.
Prosecutors charged Myers with murder and assault. Myers took the case to trial, maintaining he did not know the teens were carrying replica weapons and believing they were about to rob the Big 5.
His defense attorney emphasized that again at Wednesday's hearing.
“He believed he needed to act to protect others; he believed he needed to act to protect himself," attorney Mark Middaugh said. “At no point during this trial, at no point during these proceedings has there been any dispute that Mr. Myers subjectively believed there was a threat to others, and then a threat to himself... he acted because he saw a gun, not because he saw the color of these young men’s skin.”
Middaugh requested the judge impose only the minimum sentence possible of 96 months.
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Elaine Lee called the defense's sentencing recommendation "extremely offensive".
"Mr. Myers ignored the fact that the boys raised their hands in the air, ignored that he put the gun on the ground," Lee said. "(Myers) fired a total of ten times, landing seven of those shots in the center mass of Ali's back."
Judge Nikole Hecklinger admonished Myers before imposing the 25-year sentence, adding that the store clerk from the Big 5 store testified she saw the boys approaching and was not afraid.
"They were not wearing masks, hoods, gloves; they were clearly walking toward the door of Big 5," she said.
After court, family and friends of Rohani said they were satisfied with the judge's ruling.
"With this decision, it ensures that no one else's children are taken away from them for no reason, especially from some guy with a gun who thinks he owns the parking lot," said Said Ahmed Adaat, a friend of Rohani.
Rohani's family immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan. Members of the Afghan community turned out in support of the family at the hearing.
"Ali was one of our children," said Shoaib Tareen with the Afghan American Community of Washington. "He grew up in this community. What happened to him was felt in every Afghan home in Kent. Our children should be able to walk into a store and come home safe. No man with a gun should be able to decide on his own that boy is dangerous."
