COLUMBIA, S. C. (WIS/Gray News) - A convenience store owner in South Carolina is facing murder charges after he shot and killed a 14-year-old boy he suspected of shoplifting.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department says the shooting happened at a Shell gas station on Parklane Road in Columbia, around 8 p.m. Sunday night.
Rick Chow, who owns the Shell gas station chased Cyrus Carmack-Belton from his store and shot him just down the road in the 200 block of Springtree Drive.
“It’s senseless, it doesn’t make sense,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a Memorial Day press conference. “You have a family that’s grieving, we have a community that’s grieving over a 14-year-old who was shot.”
The owner told police he suspected Carmack-Belton of shoplifting inside the store, which the department said did not happen.
The department reviewed surveillance footage as part of this investigation.
“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,” Sheriff Lott said.
At one point, there was a verbal confrontation inside the store, but no indication that things turned physical, according to Lott.
Chow, 58, and his son chased Carmack-Belton down the street. The teenager fell but got back up and ran.
Chow’s son told his father that Carmack-Belton was armed.
Deputies recovered a gun believed to belong to the victim near his body, however, the department said there is no evidence that Carmack-Belton pointed it at or threatened Chow.
Lott said that Carmack-Belton was running away when he was shot.
Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford confirmed that the 14-year-old suffered one gunshot wound to the right lower back.
Linda Suber, who lives nearby, saw Carmack-Belton lying on the ground on Sunday night.
... (Read more)
Submitted 303 days ago
Latest News