Cari sits down with Bakari Sellers to talk through the case of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton, who was shot in the back after an argument over four bottles of water at a South Carolina gas station, and why the owner, Rick Chow, was acquitted. Bakari lays out how messy the legal reality can be: “there was no shoplifting,” the shooting happened “130 yards away from the store,” and the jury only had two choices, guilty or not guilty of murder, because the defense kept out a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter could have affected the jury’s ability to choose guilty or place the entire blame on Mr. Chow. 

Sellers also names the harder community questions: “there’s a void in the community because we have a Black child that’s dead,” plus “a conversation that has to be had about guns in young people’s hands.” Listeners walk away with the tension between grief, reasonable doubt, and what accountability can look like beyond a courtroom.

Connect @CariChampion @BakariSellers

Learn More: Linktree

Subscribe Cari Champion's YOUTUBE Channel