Karmelo Anthony, a high school student from Texas, is accused of fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old student athlete, at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, last week. An online fundraiser for Anthony is getting close to $150,000 in donations.
In a statement on the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, the Anthony family said, “The story that is being told is false, unfair, and harmful.” “As a religious family, we are very thankful for all of your help during this hard time.” Your thoughts and help are more important to us than ever.
The Help Karmelo Official Fund was created to assist “Karmelo and his family during this challenging and difficult time.”
The goal for raising money is $200,000, and so far $144,873 has been raised.
The boys were participating in the District 11-5A championship meet of the University Interscholastic League of Texas at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco when they got into a fight that turned deadly.
Anthony has been charged with first-degree murder because of the fight between the boys that ended in death. He says he did what he did to protect himself.
He is being held in the Collins County Jail on a $1 million bond, but his lawyer wants the court to lower that amount.
“I know my client said it was for self-defence.” “I don’t see any reason not to believe that, but I need to gather facts, talk to people, and figure out what’s going on before I say anything about what I think happened,” Deric Walpole, an attorney hired by Anthony’s family on Friday, told KxAS-TV. “I don’t have any reason to think it wasn’t self-defence at this time.”
Fox 4 says Anthony told cops that he did stab Metcalf, but that Metcalf hit him first. Anthony is said to have also asked the cops if what he did could be seen as self-defence.
Donors’ most recent posts on the GiveSendGo website showed support for Anthony.
“Self defence in a stand your ground state this young man did nothing wrong and has the right to defend himself as the legal system said it was right for Daniel Penny and Kyle Rittenhouse it’s right for him too,” said a comment.
A different commenter said racism was to blame.
“stay strong young brother, all of us that have came up in this country hope to never go through this or see others like us go through this, but it is an unfortunate reality of this country that these people can appear to do as they like until we make a drastic and lasting change,” a comment said. “Let your legal be the fight one of the many victories in this seemingly eternal fight against racism and evil.”
