Convenience store owner acquitted in shooting death of Black teen
A Columbia store owner was cleared after jurors weighed a fatal chase over four bottles of water and a back shot that put race and self-defense at the center of the case.
A Richland County jury cleared Chikei Rick Chow of murder after weighing whether a convenience store owner who chased a Black teenager off his property had any legal basis to fire as the boy fled. The acquittal came Monday, June 1, 2026, after about eight hours of deliberation at the Richland County Courthouse following a five-day trial.
The case began on May 28, 2023, outside Chow’s Xpress Mart Shell station on Parklane Road in Columbia, South Carolina. Prosecutors said Chow believed 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton had stolen four bottles of water. Authorities said the boy ran from the store, Chow and his son pursued him off the property, and Chow shot Carmack-Belton once in the back during the foot chase.
Chow’s defense told jurors he feared for his own safety and for his son’s safety. Prosecutors argued that even if Chow believed Carmack-Belton had taken the water, that belief did not justify chasing the teen down and firing after he had fled the store. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott had previously said investigators concluded Carmack-Belton had a weapon, but that Chow had no legal basis to shoot once the teen was running away.
The verdict landed in a county where race loomed over every stage of the case. Richland County is about 49.3% Black, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, and the killing of a Black teenager by an Asian store owner drew intense attention because it collided with self-defense claims, armed pursuit and long-running concerns about how Black youths are treated when store disputes turn deadly.
After the jury returned its verdict, Carmack-Belton’s family was heard crying in the courtroom. Their attorney said the family was struggling to understand the acquittal and would continue pursuing a civil lawsuit against Chow.
The shooting of Carmack-Belton, who was 14 when he died, had already become a focal point for questions about what store owners can legally do when they suspect shoplifting. The jury’s decision left Chow free of criminal liability, but it also sharpened the legal boundary at the center of the case: once a suspected shoplifter leaves the store and runs, the right to chase them does not automatically extend to the right to shoot.
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