Guilty until found Innocent

Reading the news stories of Sheriff Lott's statement by WIS, WACH, and WLTX about the shooting of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, 14, a Summit Parkway Middle School Student, just about anyone will conclude that Rick Chow murdered Cyrus.

I don't.

In the minds of many, it is heresy to raise any questions about the shooting of a black "child". Comments on Facebook are over-the-top. If I drive by that Shell station today, I expect to see it burned to the ground.

In the online article of WLTX, Sheriff Lott called the "crime 'senseless' ". So he had already decided that a crime occurred, when Chow shot Cyrus. And calling it "senseless" inflames the public, which is already looking for the next "Michael Brown" excuse. You know, an "innocent" black being gunned down by a white person.

Lott denies that Cyrus was shoplifting bottles of water, because he had put them back in the cooler. It sounds to me like Cyrus' shoplifting was interrupted by the owner. The crime of shoplifting did not occur, because Cyrus put the bottles back after "touching" them. He didn't carry them out of the store.

WLTX says Cyrus "left the store". Another media report says he ran from the store. Which is it?

The owner's son (name and age not given) chased Cyrus, with Chow following. Chow was armed. In that neighborhood, if I were a business owner, I'd be armed, too. Wouldn't you?

Cyrus fell and got up. Chow's son tells his father that Cyrus had a gun. Chow shot Cyrus. That leaves a huge hole in the story. "Why?"

In a Facebook comment, WIS' Judi Gatson referred to "shots". Really? Plural? The Coroner refers to only one wound.

RCSD found a gun near Cyrus' body. Will RCSD find Cyrus' fingerprints and DNA on the gun? How soon will the sheriff release that information? What is a 14-year-old doing with a gun??? (Hello, Richland 2 Safety Committee and BeSmart!!!)

Now comes the statement in the article that "investigators determined the gun was not pointed at the men (Chow and his son)." They mean, when they found it. Finding an inanimate object (gun) on the ground tells them absolutely nothing about any direction in which it might have been pointed!

The WLTX article says the sheriff said "there's been a lot of misinformation". Now there is an honest statement. And, to me, it looks like a lot of it came from the sheriff.

For the sheriff to call this "tragic" and "one of these things were [sic] you just stand up and shake your head" and "There's no reason for this to happen" instills a bias in the mind of the public. Law enforcement is supposed to be neutral. Isn't it?