Two days ago (April 2), at a high school track meet, a dreadful crime took place. A seventeen-year-old boy named Austin Metcalf was stabbed to death by another seventeen-year-old named Karmelo Anthony. The case has caught national and international attention within the last 24 hours for several reasons.
The age of the two boys is only one point. The details of the crime itself, the location of the crime (Frisco, Texas), the rationale of the killer, the testimony and sorrow of the victim’s family (Austin Metcalf’s twin brother was there and held his brother as he died)-all these details and more have captured the attention of this country.
This crime was a senseless one. (That seems an asinine point to make, after all should not all crime be considered “senseless”?) Neither the victim nor the murderer had a criminal record. The provocation started with Karmelo Anthony being in the wrong seat, at the wrong school tent, at a Frisco ISD track meet. Austin and his twin brother Hunter came into the tent after a race and saw Anthony and told him he needed to leave because he was in the wrong place. From this point began the altercation. Words were exchanged. According to several eyewitness, Anthony reached into his bag and said to Austin Metcalf, “touch me and see what happens.” Austin then went over and touched him. According to another witness, Anthony became more belligerent and shouted, “punch me and see what happens.” As Austin started to drop his bags, Anthony pulled the knife and stabbed him in the heart. Total time for all of this, roughly 30 seconds.
Both boys ran out of the tent at this point. Austin was screaming that he had been stabbed and blood pouring out of his chest; his brother Hunter running after him who caught him and tried whatever he could do stanch the bleeding. But within a few seconds, Austin was dead. Police came and Anthony was arrested, confessing that he was the killer but that he had done so in “self-defense”.
Frisco, Texas is not a crime ridden urban mess like Dallas, nor is it in Dallas County. Rather, it is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous suburbs in the United States and located in Collin County, Texas. A clean conservative place, I am a firsthand witness to the massive development that happened in this area from the year 2011 onwards. The socieo-economic status of most people here would be on the upper Middle-Class and higher. The Frisco Independent School District is one of the best in the state of Texas. When the local NBC affiliate was covering this story, they had a former chief of the Dallas Police Department who was surprised that there were no metal detectors, security personnel, or additional police presence at this sporting event. In other words, this is not Dallas or one of the schools in the DISD.
Karmelo Anthony does not fit the picture of most black kids in urban high schools in the United States. Most likely, his family is not living in public housing or receiving government help via Welfare or food stamps. Not in Frisco, Texas.
What he did possess, along with many other seventeen-year-olds in urban areas school, was a temper out of control enough to kill a boy his age by stabbing him in the heart with a knife for the slightest provocation. In the coming months the public will find out if he has a conscience. What did he feel when he stabbed Austin Metcalf in the chest? Did he feel any remorse? Normally, such altercations in public high schools’ result with fist fights-at worst. What made this boy, pull a knife to kill another kid his age who (as of now) had no prior history with him, and for something so trivial? And of all places, in Frisco, Texas?
Karmelo Anthony is not the only one who is suffering the consequences of his actions. His parents are as well. There is the real possibility that their son, who they had reared for 17 years with possibly the same great expectations that Jeff and Megan Metcalf had for their son Austin, may be locked up in prison for the rest of his life, and/or their lives. Only God knows their situation tonight.
With sorrow, there is a deep sense of conviction that something dreadful has fallen over that community. Austin’s father has publicly stated that he forgives Karmelo Anthony. He clarified his stance when talking to the press: “Am I angry? Yes. Are we hurting? Yes. But I cannot carry this. I am forgiving him (Karmelo Anthony), not for his sake, but for my sake.” Jeff Metcalf (Austin and Hunter’s father) emphatically told the media the killing of his son “is not a race thing.” “I lost a child, and his family (Karmelo Anthony) lost their son.”
There are many people who express disgust at the lack of “national outrage” that was characteristic of politicians and press during the George Floyd riots in 2020. This was my response on Truth Social:
There is no need of “national outrage” for that would be a lie from the pit of hell. The Metcalf family is a true Christian family who aren’t’ casually saying, “Lord, Lord” and breaking the third commandment over and over again. This boy (Austin Metcalf) was like the first murder victim in the world, Abel, in Genesis 4. He did what was right. He was good. He was a high school MVP football player with a 4.0 GPA. Almost certainly he would have received a full scholarship to go anywhere. He was murdered in cold blood for nothing. He doesn’t need the sermonizing from sacrilegious talking heads. He doesn’t need community organizing and riots. There is a difference here. This silence is very uncomfortable, which is why the liberals and media are trying to avoid this story. God is speaking very loudly in human hearts. The same voice that called out to Cain, “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground”, is speaking here. That is the big difference. Instead of the cacophony of hell from 2020, this is the Holy silence from heaven. And all the world who hears this grieves for a life of such great potential, lost. And his parents whose sorrow is so genuine, they don’t need PR agents for “stage management”.”
The response of the many Black preachers and cultural heads is an important point. There is a culture of provocation from many pulpits and forums and not one of reflection on the Truth. To put the matter in context, during last year’s Presidential election cycle, there was a fight in the Church world. Donny Swaggart (Jimmy Swaggart’s son) preached a sermon at his Family Worship Center Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana decrying the fact that many Black Churches were fostering antibiblical positions and politicians and pundits and many mainline black church leaders were not only doing nothing about it but rather encouraging the anti-Christian ideas and individuals. The response was explosive.
There was threat of violence against that “white boy preacher.” The presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ publicly castigated Swaggart. He went on to claim he intervened to “prevent a race riot.” A race riot against a white preacher for a Bible based rebuke? he message was clearly a threat against Swaggart. With preachers like that, is it any wonder emotions are not restrained in the Black community, particularly by people in the Church?
This is not a racial issue, but it is an issue or Biblical spirituality and morality. The black community has probably the highest rate of Churches and Church attendance in the United States. Every black music artist, no matter what genre, will publicly “thank God”. And yet every type of thuggish behavior is justified and, in some cases, seemingly encouraged. As a result, blacks are in the lead in virtually every category of every single statistic on crime. What affect does the Gospel message have in their lives?
Perhaps, it is time to pray that God will raise up some people like William Wilberforce for the “reformation of manners” among the Black Community. Wilberforce had that idea as an outreach of his Christian faith at the same time he began his crusade to end slavery in the British Empire. He found ascertained that before the horrifying issue of Slavery could be addressed, there were a myriad of other issues from hygiene to child prostitution, the treatment of criminals to the conditions in factories to be addressed. Britian was not a genteel, refined, “civilized” society, but rather grossly immoral from King George IV downward.
Such outreach is needed now in the Black Community. Otherwise, no matter how much upward mobility a black person or family may have, the thuggery of the projects, the streets, almost anything and everything reflected in mainstream art and music in the Black community will follow them. It will corrupt everything and turn what should be a fruitful new world of opportunity into a wilderness.
I look at Karmelo Anthony with consternation. He was in a school district that provided one of the best education experiences and opportunities in the United States. He had athletic ability. He too, like the boy he murdered, could have a full scholarship to any of the finest colleges in this country. An opportunity forever destroyed. Physical and mental skills completely wasted. And only God knows why. His supporters online are forced to make excuses for him and/or invent reasons for him, because of the sheer insanity of his actions. All that a judge or prosecutor must ask him: Why were you sitting there under a tent and section that was not your school’s? And whatever his justifications or rationale will start to fall apart.
Does Karmelo Anthony have a conscience? Is he even aware of the consequences of his actions? Or is he and his family looking to avoid jail time at any cost? One way or the other, he carries on him the Mark of Cain (Genesis 4). Meaning, the hand of an Angry God on his life.
In the first murder recorded in human history, Cain (the first son of Adam and Eve) killed his brother Abel. There was no court, judge, or jury. There were no witnesses present, nor prosecutors or defense attorneys. No one else may have seen the actual crime. But God was present and came down to have a talk with Cain. It was not the first time. God had spoken to him earlier when he became angry when his sacrifice was not accepted by God: “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:6-7 NASB)
Sin. That word that humanity does not like to talk about it or think about in any profound sense. Sin mastered Cain and his emotions. Anger boiling into a rage so uncontrollable that even a talk with Abel did not calm it down. He killed his brother.
The Bible does not go into the details. How long afterwards did it take for God to speak to Cain, the Bible does not say. But when the Lord spoke, the simple first question was, “Where is Abel your brother?"
Cain’s response is obnoxiously loud and affected: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
God’s question is powerful, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hands. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the Earth.”
Cain cried out, “My punishment is to great to bear! Behold, You have driven me from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and whoever finds me will kill me!”
God responded, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And with that, the Lord set a Mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him.
I imagine that is sensation, the feeling, the Presence, the dynamic that the poet Francis Thompson tried to capture in his powerful poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” Let me play devil’s advocate for just a moment and say that if by some chance, Karmelo Anthony does get off with a minor sentence or no jail time; he still will not get away from the awful Presence that chased after Cain:
Karmelo, a kid named Austin whom you never met before lies dead in the ground. His blood cries out from the ground. Why?
No, Anthony will not get away with the consequences. Forever he will be marked as a person who killed someone in cold blood. It will color every relationship he is in. Any girl who gets involved with him will be terrified for her life. Any person who knows him will be frightened enough of him to keep their distance and/or be packing a weapon in close proximity. Employers will have second thoughts about him. Colleges will have alerts about him. He committed murder. And - to quote a little Shakespeare’s Macbeth - "all Neptune’s Ocean cannot wash away the blood".
Unfortunately, I think the victimization of Austin Metcalf has only begun. And maybe his family as well. Karmelo’s lawyers may have to demonize him in order to get the possible outcome in this case. It is one thing to wake up each morning at the Metcalf home, at a kitchen table there will from now on be a missing seat. It will be excruciating to have people malign the memory of that loved one in order to get the best possible verdict in court. I pray that God’s grace would cover them.
(POSTSCRIPT: April 15, 2025)
One week after the killing of Austin Metcalf, one of the vilest actions took place from supporters of Karmelo Anthony. A GoFundMe page was started to raise money for him-the boy who committed murder one week ago. Liberal/woke elements are trying to make Karmelo Anthony a “George Floyd” figure to rally behind while referring to Austin Metcalf as an “alleged white supremacist”. This by itself was sickening. What was more shocking was that close to $400,000 was raised for Mr. Anthony. The fact that people rallied to raise close to $400,000 for the criminal will further scandalize this community. As I write this postscript, former Washington Post journalist, Taylor Lorenz is under fire for “fangirling” Luigi Mangione, the man who murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December of 2024. She said he was “handsome” and “morally good”. The fact that he murdered in cold blood an innocent married man with two children was a detail not worth thinking about. In Lorenze mind, that Brian Thompson was the CEO of a health insurance company, justified the murder. With such moral ambiguity, is it any wonder that over $400,000 has been raised for Karmelo Anthony within a week of stabbing Austin Metcalf? And now the city of Frisco in Collin County, Texas is in the national spotlight under a much sharper focus than just being the headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars.
Frisco is a place where many people have the habit (to quote one thinker) of worshipping their work, working in their play time, and playing during their time to worship. In other words, a place where many people’s priorities and lives are skewed. God is an afterthought for many lives, if people “deign” to give God a thought. I hope and pray that this incident will be a wakeup call. Fear will grip the land. People will look at their neighbors with suspicion. They will think twice about the schools their children attend, as well as the extracurricular events in which they participate. And why not? In a moment, this life can be over. Why would anyone in a world of moral ambiguity trust the other guy/girl to be sane or just?
The Lord Jesus made a dreadful point in His Sermon on the Mount: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
O God give us sanity!