Budapest boxing club says board member, family among 11 killed in Kenya plane crash

KWALE, Kenya (AP) — A Budapest boxing club said on Wednesday that one of its board members and his family were among the 11 killed in a plane crash in Kenya the day before, while en route to Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The Vasas SC sports club said in a statement that Gyula Süllős was “a decades-long supporter” and president of its boxing program.

All passengers on board the Cessna Caravan, eight Hungarians, two Germans and their Kenyan pilot, died when the aircraft crashed in a hilly, forested area of Kenya’s coastal Kwale County, shortly after taking off from an airstrip in the town of Diani.

Kenya’s aviation department secretary, Terry Mbaika, said Wednesday that some of the bodies are yet to be recovered. The roads leading to the crash site are not paved and the Kenyan coastal side has witnessed heavy rain.

Mbaika also said the investigation would take 30 days, promising to “do everything possible” to ensure its transparency.

The airline, Mombasa Air Safari, said in a statement Tuesday the pilot failed to communicate upon departure and that the airport control tower tried to reach him for 30 minutes before the plane was located.

Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said Tuesday on social media that the Hungarian victims included two families. Two children among the dead, he wrote.

Kenya’s performance in accident investigation fell below the global average, according to the most recent safety oversight audit for Kenya posted on the International Civil Aviation Organization site in 2018.

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Associated Press writer Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.

Red Cross officials collect samples Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at the scene of a plane crash that killed 12 people near Diani, Kenya. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Red Cross officials collect samples Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025 at the scene of a plane crash that killed 12 people near Diani, Kenya. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Aircraft Accident Investigators inspect the scene of a plane crash Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, that killed 12 people near Diani, Kenya, (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Kenya Principal Secretary State Department for Aviation and Aerospace Development Teresia Mbaika, center, and other top government officials inspect at the scene of a plane crash Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, that killed 12 people near Diani, Kenya, (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Kenya Principal Secretary State Department for Aviation and Aerospace Development Teresia Mbaika (second right) and other top government officials inspect Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025 the scene of a plane crash that killed 12 people near Diani, Kenya, (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

COLUMBIA, S.C (AP) — A South Carolina jury heard closing arguments Monday in the trial of a store owner charged with murder in the 2023 fatal shooting of a Black 14-year-old as prosecutors and defense lawyers painted different pictures of the killing.

Prosecutors have said the shooting was unprovoked, while defense lawyers have said Chikei Rick Chow only fired to defend his son.

Chow, 61, who is Asian, shot Cyrus Carmack-Belton in the back during a foot chase in Columbia. Chow believed — wrongly, prosecutors say — that the teen had stolen four bottles of water from the gas station convenience store. The killing sent waves of anguish and grief through the African American community in Richland County, where nearly half the population is Black.

Chow admits to shooting Belton. However, defense lawyers argue the teen pointed a gun at Chow's son, Andy, and the father fired one shot to defend his son.

“This case is not about a shoplifter. This case is about a father who sees a gun pointed at his son and had to make a decision," Defense attorney Shaun Kent told jurors. The defense attorney said Andy Chow testified that Carmack-Belton pointed a gun at him.

Defense lawyers have said Chow made a split-second decision to defend his son. They had argued Chow performed CPR on Carmack-Belton, which they said shows he acted without malice — a required element of a murder charge in South Carolina.

Prosecutors acknowledge Carmack-Belton had a semiautomatic pistol, but they say it fell on the ground during the chase and he never threatened anyone with it. Prosecutors said Chow chased the teen more than 130 yards (119 meters) from the store.

Solicitor Byron E. Gipson told jurors that Chow “chased a kid down, shot him in the back."

Gipson said multiple witnesses testified that they didn't see anything in Carmack-Belton's hands and didn't see him point a gun.

“Nobody testified that happened that doesn't have the last name Chow," Gipson said.

During closing arguments, Gipson placed a bottle of water before jurors. Gipson said that Chow “at the end of the day, believed that a human is not more than that.”

Prosecutors said a quick check of the surveillance tape would have shown that Carmack-Belton did not steal from the store. During the trial, witness Lori Carson testified that she saw Carmack-Belton running away from the store with Chow and his son in pursuit. She said she never saw a gun or anything else in the teen’s hands. She said the teen looked scared.

Protestors held vigils outside the store in the wake of the killing. Empty water bottles were arranged to spell out “Cyrus."

Andy Chow testifies as a defense witness in the murder trial against his father Chikei Rick Chow, accused in the 2023 fatal shooting of a Black 14-year-old, shown in the screen above, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Chikei Rick Chow, left, accused in the 2023 fatal shooting of a Black 14-year-old, is escorted in the courtroom during his murder trial, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)