Posted on 06/11/2024 5:54:23 AM PDT by Decombobulator
The King County, Washington, Prosecuting Attorney's Office has charged a man with second-degree murder and assault, both felony counts, for allegedly shooting a teen he thought was holding a gun and who he believed was about to rob a sporting goods store.
Aaron Brown Myers, 51, told police he believed the 17-year-old victim had a gun and was going to rob a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in the Seattle suburb of Renton last Wednesday as the teen headed toward the retailer with two others, according to court documents filed by the prosecutor, Leesa Manion.
The boy was holding an airsoft gun, according to a police affidavit. An airsoft gun is a replica firearm that shoots low-power, nonmetallic pellets.
The two teens who were with the victim told police they were going to the sporting goods store to either return or exchange the airsoft gun because it was malfunctioning, the affidavit said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Right- my mistake. The point though still has to,be hashed out in court. Was there a reasonable suspicion that the kid was going for a gun or not? The man’s statement and video seem to indicate there “might have been”- bu we will see.
If the assailant were a cop (which of course he was not) and made that clear to the two boys, the “started to drop his hand” detail might have probative value.
Emphasis on the word “might”!
What race was the boy who died?
What race is the shooter?
If they are not the same...and in a certain “direction” of difference...would there be any plausible or reasonable talk of this shooting being justified?
If not, meaning they are the same, does that reduce the value of the life of the boy who died, sufficiently to eliminate the possibility of at least some kind of murder charge?
This Guy is thinking, no. The Grand Jury should be asked to consider at least a bottom-rung murder charge.
Perhaps felony murder.
If the teen had placed the gun in a plastic bag before entering the store all would have been okay but being a teen thinking always comes last if at all.
“”There are fake guns that look very real””
I saw a TV commercial this week about a nonlethal weapon - looks like a real weapon - red - don’t recall the name of it but looks like trouble for the same reason as this story....
I saw that story - New York Post or here on FR? Not too bright!!!! Hopefully, they learned a thing or two.
Washington is an open carry state. Even if they were walking around holding a real gun, that would have been a perfectly legal thing to do, and people do it all the time. Now obviously you don’t want to walk into a bank or something like that, but they were walking to a sporting goods store that sells guns. I don’t see this guy avoiding a lengthy prison sentence.
“So if a stranger walks up pointing a gun at me, I must comply or die?”
WHAT?
So if a stranger walks up pointing a gun at me, I DO WHAT THEY SAY!!!!
I was a collector and dealer in vintage toy cap pistols. That was before the mandatory orange plugs in the barrel. A lot of them were very realistic. We were smart enough not to aim them at policemen.
“The two surviving teens said they previously used the airsoft guns to shoot in the woods and wanted help from the store with their replica firearms...”
firearmS Plural. So did the other kid have a gun in his waistband?
Did they actually purchase the gunS at THAT store? Or were they actually going to rob it?
The guy was wrong in most of what he did. I think he does have a defense and like everyone else will get to plea to a lesser charge and get probation. Maybe justifiably so.
I’ve got a BB pistol that from the side looks like the real deal. I only use it to fire at metal cover hanging near the garden to scare off mooching squirrels and deer. Th3 cover makes a good loud clang when hitź - got a couple of pellet rifles too that look like real firearms-
Where I live, hunting and protecting farms from wild animals are the norm, so people don’t freak out at the site of a firearm- but no way would I want to carry it into cities- and when transporting, if pulled over, make sure that you mention that although a bb gun or pellet gun is not a firearm, that you have them in the car first thing when speaking to the cop- don’t wanna get shot over a perfectly legal to own pellet gun
HuntErs in Florida who do pest control, use pellet rifles and pistols all the time, and cops are called out very often by folks who freak out at the sight of anything that looks like a gun. While it is a Hassel for the pest d
Control folks, they are never cited unless they are too close tO buildings- but th3y have a legal right to be there to control things like the out of control iguana population-
Kid should have carried the airsoft pistol in the box or at the very lease, in a shopping bag. That being said, the off-duty security guard made a huge mistake that he will likely go to prison for.
the 17 year old that was killed was named Hazrat Ali Rohani
You put the shooter in a magic blue suit with a magic silver badge.
Over 300K times/years it ends very well. According to the FBI that is the minimum number of times a gun is used to stop or minimize a violent situation.
The kids were stupid. If someone points a gun at you and you do not do what they say you deserve to get hurt. Uniform or badge is irrelevant. A gun was pointed at you and your defense is a piece of plastic.
Openly carrying any type of gun into a store is an invitation to intervention. If it doesn’t fit into a holster put it in a trash bag so as not to alarm folks.
The boy’s name was Hazrat Ali Rohani. It is a muslim first & middle name. (He was the cousin of Holy Prophet Muhammad). Rohani is Iranian.
Iranian: status name for a (Muslim) cleric from a Persian variant of the Arabic adjective rūḥānī ‘spiritual’ (literally ‘with a soul’). Muslim (Indonesia): from the female personal name Rohani of Arabic origin (see 1 above). Rohani is also the name of an Islamic movement in Indonesia.
My local Sportsmanswarehouse requires persons bringing a firearm into the store for "retail remediation" to stop at the front desk to ensure the firearm is clear and safe to handle inside the store.
Actually they did comply.
This is a fuller account.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/security-guard-airsoft-gun-killing-b2560141.html
All good info and advice....Here’s the info on the non-lethal weapon I saw advertised on TV:
https://byrna.com/pages/hannity-landing
According to the police report, Myers claimed that none of the teenagers ever complied with his orders to put their hands up.
Yet surveillance footage allegedly showed one of the teenagers placing his gun on the ground, and two of them – including Rohani – reacting to Myers’ orders by putting their hands in front of their bodies and extending their fingers to show they were carrying no weapons.
“Despite their compliance, the defendant then escalated the situation further, tackling [one of the teens] and pinning him to the ground, while still holding his gun trained on the [other] teenagers,” prosecutors alleged.
“He claimed he did this to prevent [the first boy] from reaching for the airsoft pistol he’d already placed on the ground, but failed to take the obvious step of securing the toy gun, rather than assaulting the teen who had carried it.”
At that point, Myers told police, one of the teenagers reached into his waistband for a gun and refused to stop when ordered. Myers feared for his life and shot the boy “numerous times”.
Surveillance footage showed the boy’s right hand “briefly lower[ing] to his waist area” before being shot, police said.
For their part, the two surviving teenagers told police that they had repeatedly informed Myers that they were only carrying “BB guns”.
Yep- ive seen those before- to me i woudl recognize them right off as non lethal protection- but those who don’t know guns would not recognize them as such
Saw a test on those gas pellets, and they aren’t really effective especially if wind is blowing- IF someone needs to use one of those, then they are probably in a situation where the other person has a real gun, and the gas pellet gun would be nearly useless in such situations-
better than nothing i suppose- but still- could get someone killed if they saw the victim holding what looks like a weapon and they didn’t see the actual weapon of the criminal-
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