The family of Cyrus Carmack-Belton is speaking out after a South Carolina jury acquitted convenience store owner Chikei Rick Chow in the 2023 fatal shooting of the Black 14-year-old, calling the verdict a devastating reminder of how Black families are often denied justice after losing their children to violence.

“Yesterday a jury watched our 14-year-old boy run away from two grown men on video. They knew one of them shot him in the back and they still said no one is to blame,” the family said in a statement first shared with ABC News. “We are heartbroken. We do not accept it. Cyrus stole nothing. He was a child, and he was running for his life. Our son mattered.”

The jury returned a not guilty verdict Tuesday after deliberating in the murder trial against Chow, a 61-year-old Columbia store owner who fatally shot Carmack-Belton outside his convenience store in May 2023.

The case drew national attention after surveillance video showed Chow and his son chasing the teenager from the store moments before the shooting. Prosecutors argued Chow acted on the mistaken belief that Carmack-Belton had stolen four bottles of water.

Video later obtained by ABC News showed the teenager returning the water bottles before the confrontation escalated.

According to prosecutors, Chow shot Carmack-Belton in the back while pursuing him outside the store. Authorities also recovered a 9mm pistol near Carmack-Belton’s body. Prosecutors said the teenager had the firearm during the chase and that it fell to the ground at some point during the encounter.

Chow’s defense team argued the shooting was an act of protection after Chow allegedly believed Carmack-Belton had pointed the gun at his son.

As the verdict was read in court, members of Carmack-Belton’s family broke down in tears.

In a statement released Tuesday, the family connected the outcome to the history of violence and failed accountability involving Black Americans.

“Black families have stood right here too many times — burying our children and then being told the law sees nothing. We feel every bit of that today,” the statement read.

For many observers, the case has drawn painful comparisons to the 1991 killing of Latasha Harlins, the 15-year-old Black girl fatally shot by Korean American store owner Soon Ja Du after Du falsely accused her of stealing orange juice from a Los Angeles convenience store. Security footage later showed Harlins had money in her hand before she was shot in the back of the head while attempting to leave the store.

Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter but received probation, community service and a fine instead of prison time — a sentence that sparked outrage throughout Black communities and became one of the flashpoints leading up to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

More than three decades later, Carmack-Belton’s killing has revived difficult conversations surrounding race, self-defense laws and the ways Black children are often perceived as threats rather than children.

In recent years, several high-profile shootings involving unarmed or fleeing Black teenagers — often tied to accusations of theft or perceived danger — have reignited debates over vigilante violence, racial profiling and disparities within the criminal legal system.

Civil rights advocates and community organizers in South Carolina previously held protests and vigils demanding accountability in the case, while supporters of Chow argued he acted out of fear during a rapidly unfolding confrontation.

Carmack-Belton’s death devastated the Columbia community, where family members, classmates and residents remembered him as bright, funny and deeply loved. Following the shooting in 2023, mourners gathered at memorials throughout the city, calling attention to the loss of yet another Black child killed under disputed circumstances.

The family said Tuesday that while the criminal trial has ended, their legal fight is not over.

“To everyone hurting with us: honor Cyrus in peace. We will not stop,” the family said. “We’re taking this fight to civil court, and we will not rest until our son’s life is given the dignity this verdict denied him.”

According to family attorney Todd Rutherford, the family previously filed a civil lawsuit against Chow in Richland County. The lawsuit had been paused pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings and is now expected to move forward.

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