A South Carolina jury heard opening statements Wednesday in the trial of a store owner charged with murder in the 2023 fatal shooting of a Black 14-year-old, with the prosecutor calling it unprovoked and “heinous” while a defense lawyer insisted it was an act of defense.Chikei Rick Chow, 61, who is Asian, shot Cyrus Carmack-Belton in the back during a foot chase in Columbia on May 28, 2023, believing — prosecutors say wrongly — that he had stolen four bottles of water from the store. The killing sent waves of anguish and grief through the African American community in Richland County, where nearly half the population is Black.While prosecutors acknowledge Carmack-Belton had a semiautomatic pistol, they say it fell on the ground during the chase and he never threatened anyone with it. But defense lawyers said the teen pointed the pistol at Chow’s son, Andy, and Chow fired one shot in his son’s defense.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what is the value of a human life?” prosecutor Byron E. Gipson asked the 12-member jury. “To grieving parents who lost a 14-year-old to senseless acts of violence, a human life is priceless.”Gipson added, “But on May 28, 2023, Chikei Rick Chow, the defendant in this case, determined that Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s life was worth less than four bottles of water.”
