'You can feel it': Father remembers Washington teen killed by off-duty guard

Catalina Gaitán / The Seattle Times (TNS)

Hazrat Ali Rouhani did not smoke, drink or swear.

When the junior wasn't at Kent-Meridian High School, he was helping customers at his father's clothing store in Kent or watching his five younger siblings, his father, Jamaluddin Rouhani, said Tuesday.

His son's death on June 5 after an off-duty Newcastle security guard allegedly shot and killed the 17-year-old outside a Renton shopping center took more than Jamaluddin Rouhani's child — he stole his friend and supporter and champion of his family.

Jamaluddin Rouhani said it was too early to talk about his son's alleged killer, 51-year-old Aaron Brown Myers. But Rouhani's death also shook the school community, which lost another student to gun violence just two days earlier, and disconcerted some mall workers who were asked to stay behind. inside while police investigated a homicide just steps from their windows.

“He was like the king of my house,” Jamaluddin Rouhani said. “If you come to my house, you can feel it – I can't describe it, how [his siblings are] crazy, how unhappy they are, how they miss him.

King County prosecutors say Myers pointed his gun at three 17-year-old boys, including Hazrat Ali Rouhani, after wrongly suspecting the trio was about to stage an armed robbery at a Renton store Big 5 Sporting Goods.

The boys went to the store that evening to return a defective airsoft gun, according to court records.

Myers allegedly attacked one of the boys before shooting Rouhani at least seven times. The teen fell to the ground, clutching his abdomen and calling for his mother, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the King County medical examiner.

The killing of Hazrat Ali Rouhani is the second Kent-Meridian High School student to die in three days.

Kent Police found Cristopher Yahir Medina Zelaya, 18, dead from a gunshot wound to the head in a parking lot near campus on June 3. No arrests have been made in the case, which the King County Medical Examiner's Office has determined to be a homicide.

Kent School District officials and Kent-Meridian High School Principal David Radford did not respond to questions Tuesday about how they might support students after the back-to-back deaths.

“Our hearts go out to these families during this difficult time of loss,” the district wrote in a statement Monday. “We keep this family and friends in our thoughts as well as our students and staff at Kent-Meridian.”

The sun shone on the quiet Kent-Meridian High School campus Wednesday, two days before their last day of school, where the words “Congratulations Class of 2024” were woven in blue letters on a chain-link fence lining the parking lot from school. .

A poster signed by teachers and classmates was stuck outside a school building, bearing the words “Forever royal, Cris, Ali”. Messages such as “No more gun violence,” “The world would be a better place without guns” and “I will miss seeing you walk into class every day” filled the poster.

White roses and yellow and blue flowers covered the base of a nearby statue of a lion, the school mascot, alongside blue and white prayer candles.

In the parking lot, Jay Smith, 24, waited for his younger sister to finish registering for her senior year classes.

“It’s just a sad situation, knowing that another child has passed away – a child younger than me, who didn’t graduate,” he said. “I hate to say it, but it can happen anywhere, and being over cautious doesn’t work.”

As of Wednesday, no remnants of last week's crime scene remained outside the Renton Big 5 Sporting Goods store, about 8 miles north of the school.

Paintball and airsoft guns lined a wall near the entrance to the store, where a manager said employees were not authorized to comment on the shooting.

The night of the shooting, Myers was waiting in his truck for his 13-year-old son to leave jujitsu training at Gracie Barra next to the Big 5 when he spotted Hazrat Ali Rouhani and his friends walking by, according to court records . .

A Gracie Barra employee declined to comment.

“We are not making any statements out of respect for those involved,” the employee said.

Hershel Vasquez, owner of nearby Pristine Barber Studio, said his employees called him immediately after the shooting to report hearing a man yell, “Hands up,” followed by gunshots. Police ordered employees to stay inside the store, where they waited about an hour before being allowed out, he said.

His employees were shocked that the teen had been shot, Vasquez said.

Surveillance camera footage reviewed by police showed one of the teens placing his airsoft gun on the ground before he and Rouhani raised their empty hands in the air. Prosecutors said Myers then tackled the first boy and shot Rouhani.

“At this point, you’re just looking for murder,” Vasquez said. “He should have called the police instead of trying to take matters into his own hands.”

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