Community mourns teenager's death after gas station owner charged with murder

The death of a 14-year-old boy who authorities say was fatally shot in the back by a gas station owner has left community members grieving and crying out against racial profiling in the South Carolina capital city where he'd recently completed middle school.

A Friday evening prayer vigil is planned at a counseling office across the street from the Xpress Mart Shell station in Columbia. The station owner Rick Chow is accused of killing Cyrus Carmack-Belton on Sunday night after chasing down the teenager, who he wrongly suspected of stealing four water bottles.

“It's a normal, human reaction to be shocked and outraged and angry and frustrated that a senseless murder happened, essentially. This child was killed and shot down,” said Reese Palmer, the founder of Palmer Counseling and Consulting and host of the vigil. “We need to be able to have a safe space to process all the emotions.”

Chow, 58, was charged with murder after an autopsy showed that Carmack-Belton was shot in the back when off the store's property running away, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. While Chow thought the youth had shoplifted, investigators said store videos showed Carmack-Belton returned the four water bottles to the cooler. Chow's son told his father that the teen was armed, according to Lott, but there is no evidence that the gun found near Carmack-Belton's body was ever directed at them.

Authorities said Chow, who has a concealed weapon's permit, had previously fired at people he suspected of shoplifting on two other occasions in the past eight years and never faced charges.

Residents of Richland County, where nearly half the population is Black, have been mourning a loss that state representative Todd Rutherford, the family's attorney, said was no accident. Rutherford said the experience of “being racially profiled, then shot down in the street like a dog” is one that the Black community has known for generations.

“One beacon of hope is seeing the resilience of the Black community as they wrap their arms around this family that has joined the club that no Black family ever wants to be a part of," Rutherford said in a statement Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, Carmack-Belton's middle school remembered him as an intelligent and quick-witted student with an “infectious smile" who dreamed of owning a tattoo shop.

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James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.