KEMETIC MINDS
Justice & Accountability Report — June 6, 2026
⚠️ Two Trials. Two Verdicts. One Question: Does the System Protect Black Lives?
- Karmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old Black teenager, is on trial in McKinney, Texas for the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf at a Frisco high school track meet on April 2, 2025. The trial started June 1, 2026. Zero Black jurors were seated after all Black prospective jurors were dismissed — a controversy that has followed the case from day one.
- Rick Chow, an Asian store owner in Columbia, South Carolina, was found not guilty on June 1, 2026, of murdering 14-year-old Black teen Cyrus Carmack-Belton — who was shot in the back while running away from Chow’s gas station. Chow had chased him over an alleged theft of four bottles of water.
- Both cases have ignited national debate about race, self-defense law, and who is granted the legal right to use lethal force against Black people in America.
- Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s family is now pursuing a federal civil rights review and a wrongful death lawsuit. A vigil at the South Carolina Statehouse is planned for Saturday.
The Karmelo Anthony Trial: Race, Self-Defense, and an All-White Jury
On April 2, 2025, a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas turned fatal. During a rain delay at Kuykendall Stadium, Karmelo Anthony — then 17, attending Centennial High School — was asked to leave the Memorial High School team’s tent by Austin Metcalf’s twin brother. When Austin Metcalf confronted Anthony directly, what happened next became the center of a murder trial that has divided the country along racial lines.
Witnesses testified this week that Anthony warned Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens,” reached into his backpack, and drew a 3½-inch pocket knife that he plunged into Metcalf’s chest. Metcalf died from the single stab wound. When officers handcuffed Anthony, he allegedly said without prompting: “I am not alleged. I did it.” He then added: “He put his hands on me. I told him not to.”
Anthony has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense. His legal team argues he feared for his safety during the confrontation. The prosecution calls it a “provoked, unjustified murder.”
Video: Testimony begins with surveillance video in Karmelo Anthony murder trial — Live courtroom coverage of the Karmelo Anthony murder trial in McKinney, Texas. • Court TV / News coverage via YouTube
The racial dynamics of jury selection have been as closely watched as the evidence. When the jury was seated, not a single Black juror was chosen. CBS Texas reported that all Black prospective jurors were dismissed — some after an unusual question about immigration status was used during voir dire, which civil rights observers flagged as a pretext. The absence of Black representation on the jury in a racially charged case involving a Black defendant has drawn sharp criticism from community leaders, civil rights attorneys, and Capital B News, which has covered the case since Anthony’s arrest.
Outside the Collin County courthouse in McKinney, the trial has drawn dueling crowds — supporters of the Metcalf family and supporters of Anthony, separated by barriers, trading chants across the street. Our earlier reporting on escalating racial hostility in 2026 documented the broader climate in which this courthouse scene is unfolding.
Cyrus Carmack-Belton: Shot in the Back. Chased Over Water. No One Held Responsible.
On May 28, 2023, 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton left a gas station Shell on Parklane Road in Columbia, South Carolina, being chased by store owner Chikei Rick Chow and his son. Chow accused the boy of stealing four bottles of water. Surveillance video showed Cyrus running away. Rick Chow shot him once in the back. Cyrus Carmack-Belton died.
Chow was charged with murder. He spent three years held without bond. On June 1, 2026, a South Carolina jury found him not guilty.
Chow’s defense argued that his son had seen Cyrus point a 9mm pistol during the chase, and that Chow fired to save his son’s life. The prosecution countered that multiple witnesses saw nothing in Cyrus’s hands as he ran, and that the video showed a child running away from two grown men — not posing a deadly threat. Cyrus’s family said after the verdict: “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’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, confirmed they will pursue a civil wrongful-death lawsuit. A federal civil rights review has also been formally requested. Cyrus’s mother, Nicole Carmack, said at a memorial held June 3 at the site of her son’s death: “Every day I will not be able to speak to my son, hear his voice change, see him grow.”
Community members gathered at the intersection of Parklane Road and Springtree Drive, leaving wind chimes, solar lights, handwritten notes, and flowers. A peaceful vigil at the South Carolina Statehouse is planned for Saturday afternoon. The Black Church community across South Carolina has been vocal in condemning the verdict — pastors preached about it from pulpits the Sunday after the acquittal, according to South Carolina Public Radio.
📊 By the Numbers
3 years. The length of time Rick Chow was held without bond before being acquitted — while the family of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton waited for accountability that never came.
Meanwhile, Karmelo Anthony faces between 5 and 99 years in prison if convicted of first-degree murder — tried by a jury with zero Black members in a case his community argues was driven in part by racial tensions at a school sports event.
The Pattern Behind Both Cases
Placed side by side, the Karmelo Anthony trial and the Rick Chow acquittal illuminate a persistent double standard in how American courts apply self-defense law when Black lives are at the center of the equation.
In South Carolina, a man who chased a 14-year-old over water and shot him in the back was found not guilty because he claimed — through his son — that the child pointed a gun. No video supports that version of events. The verdict has reopened the debate over South Carolina’s self-defense statutes and whether they create a legal framework in which store owners can pursue and kill Black children with near-impunity.
In Texas, a Black 17-year-old who claims he was defending himself in a physical confrontation faces 99 years in prison — judged by a jury that contains no one who looks like him. The racial composition of the jury has been the subject of extensive legal commentary: whether the prosecution’s use of voir dire to remove Black jurors rises to a Batson v. Kentucky challenge is already being discussed by defense attorneys nationally.
This is the same pattern we documented in our earlier investigation into the structural emergency facing Black communities in 2026 — a converging crisis in which Black people are simultaneously more exposed to lethal violence, less protected by enforcement mechanisms, and less represented in the jury boxes that determine consequences. Our earlier roundup of Black injustice in 2026 provides additional context.
🧠 Kemetic Minds Analysis
Cyrus Carmack-Belton was 14. He was running away. He was shot in the back. A jury watched the video and said: no crime. Karmelo Anthony is 17. He claims he was being physically threatened. He faces 99 years. A jury that contains zero Black people will decide his fate. These are not isolated facts. They are the architecture of a legal system that has never consistently extended the right of self-defense to Black people — and just as consistently extended it to those who kill them.
We do not editorialize on Anthony’s guilt or innocence — that is the jury’s job. We do editorialize on this: a trial in which every Black prospective juror was removed is not a fair trial. And a verdict in which a man who shot a child in the back while chasing him over four bottles of water faces no criminal consequence is not justice. These two outcomes, in the same week, in the same country, are not a coincidence. They are a system working as designed.
What you can do right now: Demand a federal civil rights investigation in the Carmack-Belton case at civilrights.justice.gov. Follow the Karmelo Anthony trial through Capital B News. Attend or amplify the Saturday vigil at the South Carolina Statehouse. Say their names. Cyrus Carmack-Belton. Karmelo Anthony.
📣 From the Kemetic Minds Newsroom:
The Karmelo Anthony trial is not over. The fight for Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s family is not over. We will continue to cover both. Subscribe to our Telegram channel for live updates as verdicts and developments break.
References & Sources
- CBS Texas — Karmelo Anthony trial preview: what happened and what to expect. cbsnews.com/texas
- CNN — Texas murder trial underway for Karmelo Anthony, accused of killing school athlete rival. cnn.com
- NBC DFW — Karmelo Anthony murder trial day 1: witnesses describe effort to save Austin Metcalf. nbcdfw.com
- KVUE / WFAA — Track meet stabbing trial day 4: Teen witnesses describe confrontation. kvue.com
- CBS Texas — Jury seated: all Black jurors dismissed after immigration question. cbsnews.com/texas
- Capital B News — Karmelo Anthony, Not NBA Star Carmelo Anthony, Charged With First-Degree Murder. capitalbnews.org
- NewsNation — Karmelo Anthony trial: Why the case has become a debate about race. newsnationnow.com
- ABC News — South Carolina jury finds store owner not guilty of murder in killing of Black teen. abcnews.com
- CNN — Rick Chow found not guilty in shooting death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton. cnn.com
- ABC News — ‘We do not accept it’: Family reacts to acquittal in fatal shooting of 14-year-old. abcnews.com
- WACH Fox — Beyond the verdict: Federal review sought in Cyrus Carmack-Belton case. wach.com
- WISTV — Rick Chow verdict sparks debate over self-defense law in South Carolina. wistv.com
- WISTV — ‘It’s not fair’: Community holds memorial honoring Cyrus Carmack-Belton. wistv.com
- ABC Columbia — Nicole Carmack and Troy Belton speak at memorial gathering. abccolumbia.com
- SC Public Radio — The ‘Black Church’ responds to acquittal of store owner in shooting death of Black teen. southcarolinapublicradio.org
- Post & Courier — After acquittal, Columbia leaders call for peace amid outrage. postandcourier.com
- Fox News — Store owner held without bond for 3 years acquitted of murder. foxnews.com
Methodology Note: This report draws exclusively from named, timestamped primary news sources including CBS Texas, CNN, NBC DFW, KVUE, ABC News, WACH, WISTV, the Post & Courier, South Carolina Public Radio, and ABC Columbia. All quotes attributed to named individuals are drawn verbatim from those sources. No facts have been added from outside the source record.
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