A Black Teen Didn’t Steal the Water. Why Did a South Carolina Jury Just Let His Killer Go Free?

The air outside the Richland County courthouse grew thick with collective grief the moment the words “not guilty” was uttered this week, acquitting Chikei Rick Chow of murder in the 2023 shooting death of Black teenager, Cyrus Carmack-Belton. What began as a routine afternoon for the 14-year-old ended in a fatal pursuit over four bottles of water he didn’t even steal.

Around 8:00 p.m. on May 28, 2023, 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton walked into a convenience store on Parklane Road in Columbia, South Carolina. Inside, he was confronted by the store’s 61-year-old Asian owner, Rick Chow, who accused him of shoplifting—an allegation that Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott later confirmed was entirely false.

In a news conference, the sheriff added that even if he had, “that’s not something you shoot anybody over, much less a 14-year-old.”

The confrontation escalated after Carmack-Belton fled out of the store, and was chased with a Glock 30S-toting Chow and his son for more than a hundred yards, CNN reported. The chase took a lethal turn when Chow’s son screamed out that Cyrus had a gun.

Moments later, as Cyrus was running away, a single bullet struck him in the right side of his back, killing him. Chow was charged strictly with murder, leaving the jury with an all-or-nothing choice after prosecutors declined to offer any lesser-included charges like manslaughter.

When the case finally reached the courtroom, prosecutors argued that Chow acted as an aggressive vigilante who escalated a minor situation into a execution. The defense, however, focused heavily on the terrifying seconds before the trigger was pulled, pointing out that a firearm was recovered near Cyrus’s body and arguing that Chow fired out of fear.

After days of emotionally charged testimony, the jury sided with the defense’s interpretation of South Carolina’s self-defense laws, and found Chow not guilty on June 1.

Distressed cries and heavy sobbing immediately broke the silence from the gallery where Carmack-Belton’s family sat, according to CNN. Chow, meanwhile, remained motionless, staring forward for a long moment before lowering his head.

“Black families have stood right here too many times — burying our children and then being told the law sees nothing. We feel every bit of that today,” the family said in a statement first released to ABC News.

While the verdict cleared Rick Chow of any legal wrongdoing, it did nothing to quiet the storm of moral outrage outside the courthouse doors, condemning the verdict as a catastrophic failure of justice. “I am devastated,” Nicole Carmack, Carmack-Belton’s mother, told WIS 10 TV. “I cannot believe that the jury came back with a not guilty.”

Troy Belton, Carmack-Belton’s father, called the verdict “another setback for young Black males. Black and brown males everywhere. It’s just like you just can’t get justice nowhere. It’s hard. And you can’t see it any other way.”

The outrage continued online, comparing the case to the killing of Latasha Harlins. In 1991, the 15-year-old Black girl from South Central was fatally shot by an Asian store owner after being falsely accused of stealing.

Today, the fight for accountability is now shifting from the criminal courts to a civil one. According to family attorney Todd Rutherford, the Carmack-Belton family had already filed a civil lawsuit against Rick Chow in Richland County. That was paused pending the outcome of the criminal trial, but is now poised to move forward.

While calling on supporters to “honor Cyrus in peace,” the family made it clear that their pursuit of accountability is far from over. “We will not stop,” they vowed.

“We will not rest until our son’s life is given the dignity this verdict denied him”—a sentiment echoed by Carmack-Belton’s mother, who told the public that the justice system had “failed my baby.”