[ad_1]
A South Carolina comfort retailer proprietor has been charged with homicide within the deadly capturing of a 14-year-old Black boy whom he falsely accused of shoplifting, chased and shot within the again on Sunday evening, the authorities mentioned.
The shop proprietor, Rick Chow, 58, who was charged on Monday, believed that the boy, Cyrus Carmack-Belton, had stolen 4 water bottles from his Xpress Mart Shell Station in Columbia, the Richland County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned.
However Sheriff Leon Lott mentioned at a information convention on Monday that Cyrus had not shoplifted and described the capturing as unjustified.
Nonetheless, at about 8 p.m., Mr. Chow and his son, whose title has not been launched by the sheriff’s workplace, chased Cyrus towards a close-by condominium advanced, the place {the teenager} fell down and bought again up, Sheriff Lott mentioned.
Mr. Chow’s son noticed that Cyrus had a gun, Sheriff Lott mentioned, and the shop proprietor shot Cyrus within the again, killing him, the sheriff mentioned. There isn’t any proof that Cyrus pointed a gun on the retailer proprietor or his son, the authorities mentioned.
Describing the capturing as “disturbing,” Sheriff Lott mentioned that even when Cyrus had shoplifted the water bottles, “that’s not one thing you shoot anyone over, a lot much less a 14-year-old.”
Mr. Chow’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to calls in search of touch upon Tuesday evening.
The capturing has prompted outrage in Columbia, the place dozens of protesters met at Mr. Chow’s retailer on Monday. Later that evening, the shop was vandalized and looted, in response to the sheriff, who urged protesters to be peaceable. Pictures of the shop confirmed graffiti on the constructing and yellow crime scene tape round it. Among the many spray painted messages had been “RIP King Cyrus,” and his age, 14.
Troy Belton, Cyrus’s father, mentioned in a short telephone interview about his son: “For those who had been round him, you’ll have liked him.”
Within the Columbia case, the Richland County coroner, Naida Rutherford, mentioned on the information convention that there was no indication that Cyrus “was preventing with the shop proprietor previous to him working out of the shop.”
Cyrus had no wounds on his palms or scratches, she mentioned. His solely accidents had been an abrasion from the autumn and the gunshot wound on his decrease proper again, Ms. Rutherford mentioned.
Mr. Chow, who legally owned the pistol used in the course of the capturing, had prior to now handled actual shoplifting incidents and confrontations, the sheriff mentioned.
However, Sheriff Lott added, “you don’t do what occurred” on Sunday evening, referring to the capturing.
State Consultant Todd Rutherford, a Democrat, mentioned on Fb that what had occurred to Cyrus was not an accident however “one thing that the Black neighborhood has skilled for generations: being racially profiled, then shot down on the street like a canine.”
He added that “no household ought to need to take care of this in 2023.”
[ad_2]
