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A 17-year-old male was shot and killed outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Renton off Grady Way just after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

Renton police said three 17-year-olds were heading into Big 5 Sporting Goods when they got into an altercation with a 51-year-old man in the parking lot. The altercation became physical and the 51-year-old man shot and killed one of the 17-year-old kids.

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King County Sheriff’s deputies were holding a training exercise near the Renton Village strip mall where the altercation took place and heard the gunfire. Responding deputies attempted life-saving measures on the 17-year-old, but he died at the scene.

“It just goes to show you that we have a crisis and an epidemic in our communities all around the country really with this gun violence,” Renton Police’s Public Information Officer Meghan Black told . “A 17-year-old lost his life tonight.”

The 51-year-old shooter is cooperating with police, as of this reporting. According to court documents, the 51-year-old man is an off-duty security guard who was sitting in his car while his 13-year-old son was in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class.

As he was sitting in his car, waiting for his son, the 17-year-old victim walked by with two friends on their way to return an airsoft gun to Big 5 Sporting Goods. The off-duty security guard got out of his car, confronted the boys and then allegedly shot the teenager multiple times.

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The man told detectives he thought the airsoft gun was a real firearm, according to acquired court documents, and that he was stopping a potential armed robbery.

This is a developing story, check back for updates

Contributing: ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ 7

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.