A South Carolina Jury Decided That Shooting a Fleeing 14-Year-Old in the Back Wasn't Murder
A South Carolina Jury Decided That Shooting a Fleeing 14-Year-Old in the Back Wasn't Murder Two weeks ago, a South Carolina jury acquitted the man who chased and shot 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton over water he didn't steal, the latest in a long history of courts failing Black children. Kahlil Greene Jun 15 On June 1, 2026, a South Carolina jury found Rick Chow not guilty of murder. Chow, a convenience store owner, had chased a 14-year-old named Cyrus Carmack-Belton more than the length of a football field down a Columbia side street and shot him in the back as he ran away. Chow claimed that Belton had stolen four bottles of water that surveillance footage later showed Carmack-Belton took from a cooler and put back. Carmack-Belton had a pistol on him, but it fell from his pocket during the chase, and the first officer to arrive at the scene testified that Chow admitted he never saw Carmack-Belton point it at anyone. Despite this, the jury concluded that no crime had been com...