A 14-year-old Black boy is dead after being shot in the back by the owner of a Shell gas station in Columbia, South Carolina.
Cyrus Carmack-Belton was killed by 58-year-old Rick Chow after being falsely accused of stealing bottles of water.
Chow is the owner of the Shell gas station on Parklane Road, and he and his son chased Cyrus out of the store at approximately 8 p.m. on May 28.
According to WIS News 10, Chow chased Cyrus from the store because he assumed he had taken the water and shot him in the back following the chase. Chow’s son reportedly told his father that the teenager was armed, and deputies allegedly found a firearm near Cyrus’ body following the shooting.
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According to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, surveillance footage showed that Cyrus was not shoplifting when he was chased from the store. The RCSD also said that there is no evidence that the teenager pointed a weapon at Chow or threatened him prior to the shooting, and Lott confirmed that Cyrus was running away from Chow when he was shot.
Cyrus reportedly took four bottles out of the cooler but put the bottles back before arguing with Chow and leaving the store. Chow’s son chased after Cyrus and Chow followed with a pistol.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said during a press conference on Memorial Day that the shooting was senseless.
“It’s senseless. It doesn’t make sense,” said Lott. “You have a family that’s grieving. We have a community that’s grieving over a 14-year-old who was shot. Regardless, even if he had shoplifted four bottles of water, which is what he initially took out of the cooler and then he put them back, even if he’d done that, that’s not something you shoot anybody over, much less a 14-year-old, but you just don’t do that.”
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