Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
The family of the suspect in a fatal Frisco, Texas track meet stabbing has raised more than $279,000 off of the alleged crime that occurred just one week ago to support them during this “challenging and difficult time.”
Seventeen-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student at Centennial High School, allegedly fatally stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf in the chest at a multi-school sporting event on April 2 after the victim asked and then tried to push Anthony out from under the Memorial High School track team tent. Witness statements and recently released police reports indicate that while Metcalf’s twin Hunter Metcalf held his bleeding brother, the suspect tossed the bloody knife into the nearby bleachers, where officers later recovered it.
When law enforcement took Anthony into custody, the suspect allegedly claimed unprompted that “I was protecting myself” because “he put his hands on me.”
“I’m not alleged. I did it,” reports say Anthony added.
Another officer wrote that Anthony “made another spontaneous statement and asked if what happened could be considered self-defense.”
Investigation into the circumstances surrounding the stabbing is ongoing. Anthony’s initial legal counsel and family, however, appears to have taken his “self-defense” comments to heart.
“The narrative being spread is false, unjust, and harmful,” the Anthony family’s statement attached to the ongoing fundraiser claims. “As a family of faith, we are deeply grateful for all of your support during this trying period. Your prayers and assistance mean more to us now more than ever.”
Deric Walpole, the attorney who spent the last week trying to lower Anthony’s $1 million bond, claimed that he didn’t “have any reason to think it wasn’t self-defense at this time.”
“I know that my client said it was self-defense. I don’t have any reason to disbelieve that, but I need to develop facts, talk to people, and figure out what’s going on before I make any statements about what I think happened,” Walpole said.
Anthony’s new legal team, Clark Law Firm’s Bill Clark and K Cole Law’s Kim Cole, did not explicitly endorse the “stand your ground” angle in their official statement, but did demand the public “refrain from rushing to judgment before all the facts and evidence are presented.”
“Karmelo, like all citizens of the United States, is entitled to a fair and impartial legal process; we are committed to ensuring that Karmelo’s rights are indeed protected throughout each phase of the criminal justice system,” the lawyers said, noting that “Karmelo and the entire Anthony family are sincerely saddened that a life was lost and offer their condolences to the family of Austin Metcalf.”
None of the evidence or statements released so far indicates that Metcalf had previously bullied Anthony, was armed, or attempted to use illegal force against Anthony, something social media conspiracy theorists and law enforcement impersonators online have tried to claim. In fact, witness accounts appear to suggest that Anthony was the provocateur who deliberately camped out under a rival high school’s tent and brought a weapon to a school sporting event.
According to Lone Star State self-defense laws, someone who uses deadly force retaliation and expects the protection of self-defense and “stand your ground” laws is only justified if the use of that force “is immediately necessary to protect the actor against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful force.”
While Anthony’s family raises money off of the alleged murder and a deliberately deceptive campaign hinged on Anthony’s “self-defense” comments, Metcalf’s family is planning a funeral. Metcalf’s father has publicly stated he forgives his son’s suspected murderer.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.