Did 14-Year-Old Cyrus Belton Point a Gun? | Rick Chow Trial Recap

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[00:00:00]This is 14-year-old Cyrus Carmarmac Belton. And on May 28th, 2023, he walked into a Shell gas station in Columbia, South Carolina. And almost immediately after entering, he was told by one of the owners to place his bag at the front of the store because it was store policy.

[00:00:21]>> Put down the ice cream chest.

[00:00:27]Yep.

[00:00:31]But after that, the owner proceeded to follow him around as he shopped, eventually accusing him of stealing some waters.

[00:01:02]bucket in your pocket.

[00:01:09]>> I don't got the water in my pocket.

[00:01:23]So, the woman's husband, whose name is Rick Chow, and their adult son, whose name is Andy Chow, proceed to chase Cyrus Belton for 130 yards. As Cyrus is running, he ends up dropping his cell phone. He runs out of his shoes. He drops his backpack and trips a couple of times. This is a video of the path Cyrus ran and Rick and Andy followed behind.

[00:02:01]Okay. Now, as this chase is happening, a number of people who were driving in the area start to take notice. Particularly the two women in this BMW video. Um on I had pulled onto the lot and I stopped.

[00:02:14]Okay.

[00:02:14]>> At that point I saw them Cyrus run across the street them chasing him. I saw Syrus trip and he got up and I was excited cuz I wanted him to continue running but he didn't get up straight straight up. I thought he tripped again and he went down. So then I drove down there when I stopped and asked if they needed help.

[00:02:44]Was everything okay? Mr. Child was in a a shooting state where he's standing upright with his legs and he had his arms like this. We pulled into the gas station. As we were pulling in, um, Cyrus was running out and behind Cyrus was his son and Mr. Chow. Um, so Cyrus was running out. His shoe came off. He was pumping his arms and holding his pants with the other arm. He crossed the street and he tripped over the curb.

[00:03:20]At that time, he got back up. I see Mr. Child step out. He had his arms up and then we see Cyrus fall again to the ground. He kind of like crawled basically um to the place where he passed.

[00:03:38]So, we're in here.

[00:03:39]>> Yes. He was on his way back up. Mr. Chow is already like this.

[00:03:44]>> Did you see Cyrus Carmarmac turn around at any point?

[00:03:49]>> No.

[00:03:50]>> Did you see him point anything at Rick Chow or Andy Chow at any point?

[00:03:54]>> No.

[00:03:55]>> And then the driver of this white car testifies about what he saw.

[00:03:59]>> Okay. So, when he he fell once he after he got across the street.

[00:04:03]>> Okay. It's It was something over there that it looked like he had to trip up over or something. First fall was real hard.

[00:04:09]>> Okay.

[00:04:09]>> Yeah. He tried to get back up, but it was more so of a stumble versus him standing straight up.

[00:04:14]>> Okay.

[00:04:14]>> It's like he he stood up almost all the way up completely. He maybe took a step if that. And that's when he shot.

[00:04:24]>> Okay. But he fell into the towards the grass.

[00:04:27]>> Yeah.

[00:04:27]>> All right. And at this point when he trips, where are where is Rick Child?

[00:04:32]And you pointed where he is.

[00:04:34]>> He's like right behind. So if Cyrus strips up here, Rick Chow.

[00:04:38]>> All right. Did you ever see Rick Chow out here in the road?

[00:04:42]>> No.

[00:04:43]>> Did you ever see Andy Child out here in the road?

[00:04:46]>> No. Cyrus fell right here. You saw Rick and Andy side by side. I think you said this kind of area. Yeah.

[00:04:55]And then there was one more eyewitness whose car wasn't caught on the video surveillance because she was coming the opposite way because she was leaving from her apartment. I see a young man running. I heard a pop sound and my aunt literally said, "What is that?" We saw the young man go down to the ground and we saw the older man have a gun in his hand pointed in a gun stance. My aunt said, "I just want to make sure we're seeing what we seen." So, we drove out real slow and we still seen Cyrus on the ground. Looked like he was trying to push himself up like how somebody's doing push-ups where they're shaking really bad. And he propped back down on the ground, started banging on the ground like in pain. And then my aunt, she said, "We need to get out of here."

[00:05:40]So, we drove up to an empty parking lot near where the old Columbia Mall is at.

[00:05:46]And 911 had me on hold for a long time.

[00:05:50]So, we hung up and we called again. As a result of being shot in the back, 14-year-old Cyrus Carmarmac Beltton passes away and Rick Chow is arrested and charged with murder. But Rick Child's defense is that this isn't murder. He says it was actually self-defense or indefense of his son Andy. And so that is what the heart of this case is all about, murder or self-defense. And that's because it turns out that 14-year-old Cyrus Carmarmac Beltton was carrying a firearm that day. But what Cyrus did with that firearm is what's in dispute. According to prosecutors, Cyrus didn't pull out his firearm. It fell out of his pocket when he fell. The evidence will show that after they chased him out of his shoe, dropping phones down Springtree Road after he tripped over a curb, fell, dropped his backpack. We believe that gun spilled out of that pocket. And within moments after that gun spilled out of that pocket, that man shot Cyrus Carmarmac Belton in the back with a 45 caliber pistol.

[00:06:58]>> But the defense on the other hand says Cyrus pointed that gun.

[00:07:02]>> Mr. Belton pointed the gun at Andy Chow.

[00:07:07]Andy yelled out, "He's got a gun." Mr. Chow told him, "Drop it. Mr. Chow is coming up." Colds is gone. Now, at that moment, at that split second, that frozen moment in time, Rick Chow sees a young man pointing a semi-automatic pistol at his son who's backing up with his hands up and Rick Chow fires his gun to protect his son.

[00:07:38]We submit to you that that was reasonable. a reasonable impression that his son was possibly going to get seriously injured or die at the hands of somebody who had a gun pointed at him.

[00:07:50]That that was a reasonable belief and he fired his weapon under the law in defense of his son.

[00:07:58]>> So again, that's the issue for jurors to determine. And in an effort to prove their side beyond a reasonable doubt, prosecutors ask all of the eyewitnesses if they ever seen a gun in Cyrus's hands. As you, your daughter, and grandkids were in that parking lot, you watched Cyrus run by. What if anything's in his hands?

[00:08:18]>> I saw his backpack on his back, but I didn't see anything in his hand.

[00:08:22]>> And as he ran down spring trees, what was in his hands?

[00:08:25]>> I didn't see anything in his hands.

[00:08:27]>> And as he fell multiple times, what was in his hands?

[00:08:30]>> I didn't see anything in his hand.

[00:08:32]>> And from your vantage point, you feel certain you would have seen that something was in his hands?

[00:08:36]>> Yes.

[00:08:37]Did you see a gun in uh in in Saras's hand at any point in time?

[00:08:41]>> No.

[00:08:42]>> Did Did you see anything in his hand at this point?

[00:08:45]>> No. All right.

[00:08:47]>> Did you see the young man carrying anything?

[00:08:51]>> No.

[00:08:52]>> Testimony under oath. Is nobody said told you that night that Cyrus pointed at him?

[00:08:57]>> Yes, sir.

[00:08:59]>> And just for the sake of confirmation, here is the medical examiner confirming where Cyrus was shot. the location of the wound on his back. Say that one more time.

[00:09:10]>> It was on his kind of right back area just below kind of midback. That's the projectile and you can see the shadow of his heart just above that.

[00:09:20]>> This is his heart.

[00:09:21]>> Yes.

[00:09:22]>> Okay.

[00:09:23]>> Um so it's not immediately fatal. Those are more and he would not lose consciousness immediately. Those are more with wounds to the head. So, with a heart wound, um maybe a minute or two, he could have there's been reports of people being able to run um when the adrenaline in their system, but not far.

[00:09:43]Um they collapse pretty quickly because um the blood every heartbeat is the blood's coming out of their heart and not circulating.

[00:09:52]>> Okay. Now, the defense on the other side is making every effort they can to show that what Rick Chow did that day was in self-defense. And so, they start off by highlighting why Cyrus had a gun in the first place. is why a 14-year-old would be illegally possessing a semi-automatic pistol, wandering the streets with that pistol, with a laser attached to that pistol, a laser to go ahead and ensure better accuracy when you fire the weapon.

[00:10:28]Because if he didn't have that weapon, he never would have had a weapon to draw on Andy Chow. He never would have had a weapon to put Andy Chow in danger. And he never would have had a weapon that would cause Mr. Chow to believe his son was going to be shot and have to make a split-second decision. Split-second decision. They also claim that even though Cyrus did not steal anything, it was reasonable for the child to believe he did.

[00:11:00]>> Why was he running? Why did he run? He did increase the suspicion at that point by running. And he really ran fast because he ran out of one of his shoes.

[00:11:09]Now, reasonable to believe that he may have taken something? Absolutely.

[00:11:14]Reasonable to go ahead and follow him to see where he was going and what direction so he could tell the police?

[00:11:19]Absolutely. And he wasn't going to tackle him. He wasn't going to hold him.

[00:11:22]He wanted to see where he was going.

[00:11:24]Rick Chow, the defendant in this case, ran following his son and Mr. Carmarmac because he was trying to see what was going on with his son, protect his son, make sure his son was okay. He did not know what was going on. He had nothing to do with the determination in the store, but he was going out there to protect his son, to make sure his son was okay. It's his son. The defense also attempts to poke holes in the testimony of the eyewitnesses.

[00:11:52]>> You remember telling the dispatcher uh that you believed he might have stolen something?

[00:11:57]>> That's what was being said. I Yes, I said that. I was pro. I didn't want to be involved. When my mom stopped the vehicle, I told her to keep going because I did not want to be involved.

[00:12:10]My mom called 911 and she handed me the phone.

[00:12:13]>> Okay.

[00:12:13]>> We had the windows rolled up and so it was muffled. And when we talked to the 911 operator, do you remember specifically telling you did not actually see the shooting?

[00:12:22]>> I stated in my 911 calls that I think I saw and then I my aunt was behind me as you can hear in the 911 call. She said, "No, Jasmine, he did shoot that boy."

[00:12:32]And I said, "Yes, he did."

[00:12:34]>> And then when the dispatch, the officer dispatch, whatever they call those 911 officers, they asked you a question. Did you see him shoot the boy or did you just hear the gun go off? And your response was, "We just heard the gun go off and then we happened to see the owner at pointing the gun at the boy while he was on the ground." Do you remember that?

[00:12:53]>> Correct.

[00:12:54]>> It's not okay, is it?

[00:12:56]>> It's not okay.

[00:12:58]>> I didn't say that it was okay for a child to have a gun. I never said that.

[00:13:01]>> And then let me follow that with that question. It's not okay, is it?

[00:13:05]>> I mean, it depends on what point you come from. I don't >> Please explain. What point would make it okay for somebody under the age of 15 to possess a viral?

[00:13:17]>> I wouldn't know.

[00:13:18]>> Well, you do know. You just said it depends. So, let the jury know based upon the questions from the state and your answer. When is it okay for someone under the age of 14 or a child to have a gun?

[00:13:30]>> I mean, I know. I mean, everybody had their own viewpoint of that's why I say it depends. And when the lead detective testifies, the defense asks him if he found Cyrus's behavior in the store to be suspicious.

[00:13:42]>> And so you saw the long young man put water bottles in, put water bottles back out several times or twice maybe, I think.

[00:13:48]>> Well, he took him out and then put him back.

[00:13:50]>> And you thought there was nothing peculiar about this?

[00:13:53]>> No.

[00:13:54]>> Cyrus Belton went into the store with a firearm.

[00:13:58]>> He did.

[00:13:59]>> It was illegal for him to walk into the store with a firearm. It was illegal.

[00:14:03]>> Through your investigation, you found no money or payment ability for Cyrus to pay for anything in that store.

[00:14:10]>> Did not.

[00:14:11]>> The book bag you found had nothing inside of the book bag.

[00:14:14]>> There's some papers in there, but essentially No.

[00:14:18]>> Um, your testimony is there was nothing strange that you thought of going inside of that store with nothing in it.

[00:14:23]>> Correct.

[00:14:25]>> And then finally, you have testified. We may disagree with it. You may not like it, but you would agree it is not against the law to follow and or chase somebody from.

[00:14:33]>> Not against the law, but once again need used and exercise common sense. The firearm being on him is the only thing that I would find that would be not right.

[00:14:43]>> And then finally, in order to establish that the firearm did belong to Cyrus, the defense shows a picture Cyrus posted on his Instagram the night before the incident. He's wearing the same hoodie, holding the same firearm, and the firearm has a laser light on it that was also found at the scene.

[00:15:00]>> So, is that from your example, from looking at defense exhibit number one, is that the light that was on the firearm that was found on scene that day?

[00:15:09]>> It appears to be.

[00:15:12]>> And that would be the firearm that we believe is in states exhibit number 11.

[00:15:21]Yes.

[00:15:22]>> So again, through the course of your investigation, do you not find it strange, weird, peculiar that on the day before this or within 24 hours, this is posted and then he goes into the store through your investigation?

[00:15:38]>> You shouldn't have had a gun, period.

[00:15:41]>> Okay, that's the recap for day one and day two. The defense is up on day three to present their side of the case. So, we will see if Rick Chow himself testifies and if his son Andy will testify also over some water is