Rick Chow Was Found Not Guilty Of Killing A Teen He Accused Of Shoplifting

A Richland County, South Carolina jury found Chikei Rick Chow not guilty of murder on Monday evening after more than eight hours of deliberation, acquitting the 61-year-old former convenience store owner in the May 2023 shooting death of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton, a Black teenager whom surveillance video confirmed had not stolen anything from Chow's store before he was chased more than 130 yards from the premises and shot once in the back.

The verdict was unanimous. After it was read, sobs and cries of distress came from Carmack-Belton's family seated in the gallery. Chow sat silently frozen before slowly bowing his head onto his interlocked hands.

Outside the courthouse, attorney Todd Rutherford spoke on behalf of Carmack-Belton's family. Cyrus's father, Troy Belton, stood beside him and did not say a word.

"There is no way that a child who did nothing wrong, who was shot in his back, how that jury can justify that verdict," Rutherford said. "I've been practicing law for almost 30 years. I've never seen anything like this. I don't understand it."

The family confirmed Monday night that they will continue pursuing a civil lawsuit against Chow. "He owes for what he did to Cyrus," Rutherford said. "He owes for what he did to the family. He owes for what he did to this community."

What Happened On May 28, 2023

Cyrus Carmack-Belton was 14 years old on the afternoon of May 28, 2023, when he walked into the Shell gas station convenience store on Parklane Road in Columbia, South Carolina, that Chow and his family operated. He left the store.

Rick Chow and his son Andy Chow accused him of stealing four bottles of water. Surveillance video, reviewed by Richland County Sheriff's investigators, showed he had not stolen anything.

Chow and his son chased Carmack-Belton from the store. They pursued him for more than 130 yards, past the store's property, away from the gas station, toward an apartment complex. Rick Chow fired during that chase. Cyrus Carmack-Belton was shot once in the back.

He was 14 years old. He had not stolen anything.

The Richland County Sheriff's Office arrested Chow the following day and charged him with murder. Sheriff Leon Lott said at a press conference announcing the charges that Chow had chased the victim off store property and toward the apartment complex before firing. Investigators found no evidence of a physical confrontation between Carmack-Belton and the Chows.

At the Stand Your Ground hearing in November 2025, the judge reviewed surveillance video showing Carmack-Belton running from the store and found insufficient justification to grant immunity under South Carolina's Stand Your Ground law, ruling Chow a danger to the community and a flight risk. He denied bond. Chow spent approximately three years in jail awaiting trial.

The Competing Arguments At Trial

The trial lasted approximately one week. Closing arguments were delivered Monday. Prosecutors and the defense presented what Chow's own attorney described as "two different stories to the extremes."

The prosecution's case rested on the surveillance video, eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence. The surveillance footage confirmed Carmack-Belton had not stolen anything from the store.

Prosecutors argued Chow acted in anger, chasing a teenager he wrongly accused of theft and shooting him in the back at a distance more than 130 yards from the store.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Carmack-Belton had a semiautomatic pistol, but argued it fell to the ground during the chase and that the teenager never pointed it at anyone or used it to threaten either Chow.

The defense built its case on testimony from Andy Chow, Rick Chow's son, who testified that Carmack-Belton pointed a gun at him during the chase.

Defense attorney Shaun Kent made the framing explicit in his closing argument:

"This case is not about a shoplifter. This case is about a father who sees a gun pointed at his son and had to make a decision."

The jury deliberated for more than eight hours before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict. During deliberations, jurors asked for instructions to be clarified at multiple points.

What The Verdict Means For The Community

The killing of Cyrus Carmack-Belton sent waves of anguish and grief through Richland County's Black community, which represents nearly half the county's total population, when it occurred in 2023, and the subsequent three years of proceedings have kept that grief present and unresolved. Monday's acquittal arrived on the same day as what would have been Cyrus's 17th birthday, a detail that his family's attorney noted in remarks after the verdict.

Rutherford asked supporters to remain peaceful in the aftermath of the verdict while making clear that the family's anger, and the community's anger, was real and legitimate. "The anger is palpable tonight. You can feel it.

You can touch it because people saw a child, it looked like their own. It did nothing wrong with a child that all the witnesses describe that fear in his eyes when he left the store."

Richland County Sheriff's deputies were posted at Chow's former store Monday night with police tape near the gas pumps.

The acquittal does not end the legal proceedings against Chow. The family's civil lawsuit continues. A civil case operates under a different standard of proof than a criminal murder trial, preponderance of the evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt, and the evidence that prosecutors presented at trial, including the surveillance footage confirming Carmack-Belton had not stolen anything, will be available in those proceedings.

Chow had been in jail since his arrest in May 2023. His defense attorney said he expected Chow to be released from custody following the verdict. The family that stood outside the courthouse Monday night will continue its pursuit of accountability through the civil courts.

Cyrus Carmack-Belton was 14 years old. He did not steal anything. He was shot in the back.