S.C. store owner chased, fatally shot Black 14-year-old, sheriff says

South Carolina store owner chases, kills 14-year-old boy, sheriff says - The Washington Post

On Sunday evening, a convenience store owner in Columbia, S.C., brandished a gun as he chased a 14-year-old boy from his shop into the street, according to officials. Rick Chow, 58, believed the teen, Cyrus Carmack-Belton, had been shoplifting, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference Monday.

Chow then allegedly shot Carmack-Belton in the back, killing him.

Carmack-Belton, who was found with a gun near his body, had not shoplifted anything from Chow’s store, Lott said after investigators reviewed surveillance footage.

“Even if he had done that, that’s not something you shoot anybody over,” he added. “Much less a 14-year-old.”

Chow was arrested Monday and charged with murder, Lott said, calling the facts of the case “disturbing.” Crowds gathered outside Chow’s store Monday to protest the killing and the alarming escalation Lott described that allegedly led to the death of the Black teenager. Chow, who is Asian, was jailed after an initial court appearance Tuesday, a Richland County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said.

“It’s senseless,” Lott said on Monday. “It doesn’t make sense. We have a family just grieving, we have our community just grieving.”

An attorney for Chow did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

Chow’s convenience store has had previous instances of shoplifting, Lott said, adding that Chow had had other confrontations with customers.

Around 8 p.m. Sunday, Chow accused Carmack-Belton of shoplifting, and the two got into an argument inside the store, Lott said.

Investigators found no evidence that Carmack-Belton stole anything from the store after reviewing surveillance footage and speaking to witnesses, Lott said. Before the argument, Carmack-Belton took four bottles of water out of a cooler, then put them back, Lott said.

Carmack-Belton then ran out of the store. Chow and his son pursued Carmack-Belton from the store to a block of apartments on an adjoining street. Carmack-Belton fell as he ran from the two, then got back up and kept running, Lott said.

At some point during the chase, according to Lott, Chow’s son said he noticed that Carmack-Belton had a gun. Chow then fired his own gun, killing Carmack-Belton.

Officers recovered a gun close to the body of Carmack-Belton, Lott said. He died from a single gunshot wound to his lower back, Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said at the Monday news conference. That suggested he was still running away and posed no immediate danger to Chow when he was killed, Lott said, and informed the murder charge.

“We looked at the facts that happened last night, and we’ve charged him appropriately,” Lott said.

Rutherford added that there weren’t any additional injuries on Carmack-Belton’s body, except a scrape from his fall during the chase, indicating that Carmack-Belton and Chow had not gotten into a physical altercation before the shooting.

A crowd gathered at the convenience store on Memorial Day in peaceful protest, according to a Richland County Sheriff’s Department incident report. On Monday evening, officers responded to an alarm at the store and reported that it had been vandalized.

Protesters spray-painted hearts and Carmack-Belton’s name on the walls of the store in red and black and taped signs to the windows that read “Close it down!” and “End Racism + Gun Violence.”

Applause broke out from the crowd on Monday afternoon when the charges against Chow were announced, WIS reported. One of Carmack-Belton’s brothers told WIS that he was a “very smart” kid and that his death had devastated their family, especially his mother.