South Carolina jury finds store owner not guilty of murder in killing of Black teen

[karynnj]

13. What a terrible verdict

Here is a link to a more complete CNN article for people like me who knew nothing of the back story. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/us/south-carolina-murder-trial-cyrus-carmack-belton

From it you can see that he was running away, was shot in the back, and multiple witnesses said they did not see him pointing a gun at anyone. There was a sentence saying the gun was dropped.

Obviously the 14 year old should not have been carrying a gun. It would have been reasonable to call the police and file a report. If the store had surveillance cameras, this could have been one of many stories where images led to police identifying and charging the kid appropriately.

I understand how the storekeeper might have felt threatened when the boy was in the store, as soon as he was running away, anger probably replaced fear.