Petition · Rapid Response · Corporate Accountability
JUSTICE FOR CYRUS CARMACK-BELTON
Cyrus was 14, shot in the back over water. The man who killed him walked. We are leading the demand that he does not get to walk away.
TAKE ACTION★ WHAT'S HAPPENING
THE SITUATION
On May 28, 2023, 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton was shot in the back and killed as he ran from a convenience store in Columbia, South Carolina. Store owner Rick Chow and his son chased him about 130 yards over a suspicion that he had taken four bottles of water, water that surveillance showed him putting back. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott was blunt: "He did not shoplift anything." The coroner found the wound consistent with someone running away. (Sources: CNN; CBS News; WIS-TV.)
On June 1, 2026, a jury acquitted Chow of murder. He had claimed self-defense. (Sources: CBS News; CNN, 2026.)
It was at least the third shooting at his store; the 2015 and 2018 shootings brought no charges. (Source: CBS News, 2023.)
The criminal courts are done. The fight is not. The family filed a civil wrongful-death suit that is moving forward after the acquittal, and advocates are calling for a federal civil-rights review. (Source: WIS-TV, June 2026.)
★ WHY IT MATTERS
A 14-year-old is dead over four bottles of water he never took, and the man who chased him down and shot him in the back walked out of court. That is the pattern. The Urban Institute found white-on-Black killings are ruled "justifiable" roughly ten times as often as Black-on-white killings, and the gap widens under stand-your-ground laws.
The same season, Karmelo Anthony, a Black teenager who said he acted in self-defense, was convicted and sentenced to 35 years. One system, two verdicts. When the courtroom closes the door, we do not stop. We move to the next lever of power.
★ WHAT WE'RE DEMANDING
The criminal courts let him walk. We will not. The Advocacy League is leading the demand for full accountability for the killing of Cyrus Carmack-Belton: that Rick Chow, who has now shot three people at his store, be held liable in civil court for the death the criminal system excused, that he never again be allowed to operate a business or carry the firearm he used, and that the U.S. Department of Justice open a federal civil-rights review. We stand with the Carmack-Belton family. Add your name and lead this with us.
★ THE RECEIPTS
14
years old, shot in the back as he ran, over water he put back
Source: Richland County Sheriff; CNN, 2023
3rd
shooting at his store (2015, 2018, and the killing of Cyrus)
Source: Richland County Sheriff’s Dept; CBS News
10x
more often white-on-Black killings are ruled justifiable
Source: Urban Institute
TAKE ACTION NOW
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