Hazrat Ali Rohani was a 17-year-old junior at Kent-Meridian High School and the eldest of six children in a family that had immigrated from Afghanistan. On the evening of June 5, 2024, he and two friends went to a Big 5 Sporting Goods in Renton to return a malfunctioning airsoft gun Rohani owned. While they walked through the parking lot they were confronted by 51-year-old off-duty security guard Aaron Brown Myers, who told police he believed he saw a Glock and thought an armed robbery was imminent.

Myers left his car with a firearm drawn, ordered the teens to drop their weapon, and the teenagers complied. One placed the airsoft gun on the sidewalk and repeatedly told Myers it was a BB gun; the boys kept their hands raised. According to police and surveillance footage, Myers tackled one friend, then, as Rohani backed away with his hands up, opened fire. Rohani was hit once in the side and six times in the back, fell to the ground calling for his mother, and died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. Myers was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault; he pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.

Rohani’s family and the local Afghan immigrant community were devastated, and civil rights groups questioned whether race and ethnicity played a role. If anyone knew Hazrat, his friends, or saw the encounter that night, please come forward with information.