Jeff Metcalf Interview about the murder of his son
The case
This is an astonishing case, not only for the behaviour of the father of the murdered teenager, for he reflected God’s love in offering forgiveness after the murder of his own son, but in being an indictment upon a whole political movement, that has caused moral and spiritual deafness and blindness.
Jeff Metcalf’s son Austin was murdered at a football game.
Karmelo Anthony, a 19 year old black footballer from another team who actually had a reputation as a good student with a high grade point average, wanted to shelter from the rain and tried to take a seat in a stand belonging to Austin’s team, the Memorial High School tent.
Some say that this is a fairly confrontational thing to do, during the lead up to a game; others claim the weather was very bad that day.
The boys in the Memorial High School tent didn’t want him to sit in their stand.
Witnesses (including other black footballers) testified in the trial that Karmelo provoked Austin, a white boy (actually part indigenous), the victim. Karmelo then pulled out a knife, before or during while Austin began trying to move Karmelo onwards by grabbing his shoulders and pushing him out.
Karmelo Anthony turned around and in a split second decision, knifed Austin in the lung.
Austin ran over to his twin brother Hunter, who was standing there; Hunter grabbed Austin and tried to stem the bleeding.
Hunter says he saw the moment Austin’s soul left his body.
Karmelo Anthony ran away, then a little while later, when apprehended by one of the staff members, asked the man who had stopped him leaving the grounds if the boy he’d stabbed was alright.
In his recent trial for murder, Karmelo Anthony was found guilty and given a thirty five year sentence.
Jeff Metcalf — under a suppression order for a year
Austin’s father Jeff was under a suppression order for a year, while the trial was in progress, which meant he could not respond to online criticism or comments from Karmelo Anthony’s family.
Jeff says he has forgiven Karmelo Anthony, so that he himself can move on without holding on to the bitterness.
The parents of Karmelo Anthony, the boy who attacked Austin, are also Christian — or at least they claimed to be God-fearing. Some of their media statement videos are below as well.
The defence did not bring up to the stand any character witnesses for Karmelo Anthony, neither did Karmelo take the stand himself.
And the Anthony family spokesman, ‘Minister’ Dominique Alexander, is the person whose published statements online are the most awful and destructive — indeed, this man is a type of the Pharisees or Sadducees, who in Jesus’ time in the Bible were also anxious to justify murder. Woe to him.
On Martin Luther King
It strikes me that the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s was a wonderful thing: Martin Luther King was trying to redress the balance, and to ensure that black people in America were treated fairly; Martin Luther King’s dream was that nobody would be judged by the colour of their skin but only by the content of their character.
Indeed, even after his house was fire-bombed, Martin Luther King insisted that the movement proceed non-violently, and that they practice love for enemies.
Now, the whole movement appears to have become something different, everything is seen through the distorting lens of racism, i.e., claiming that white people responsible for all the wrongs in the world, indeed, it has become a power play, a whole movement of racism1.
Jeff Metcalf interview
Below is Jeff Metcalf’s interview on Rumble, which is very much a tribute to his son; although it is very long and a little rambling in places, but it is very moving.
There is some fairly strong language in this video.
I found the first hour very moving in particular.
One small detail that I found moving and sad: Austin said three days before his death, that he had “faith that God’s got me, and all my hard work will pay off.”
None of us knows exactly how much time we have left. We should always ask ourselves if we are ready to meet our Maker. The hard work Austin had done that really mattered might well have been more to do with his faith in Christ and following Him, than his school and football career.
Some notable quotes from Jeff Metcalf
“The night after he was killed… I had a dream. It didn’t last very long. I see Austin. He was wearing his camera, that we bought for him, and he walks up to me. ‘Pops. I’m okay.’ And I said, ‘I’m not.’
“I was forever changed by that day. Not only me, but everybody in my family, everybody who knew him. And I want to talk about something that a lot of people miss and don’t talk about. What do you think the effect if you’re a kid and you’re in the bleachers and you witness a murder and your friend dies in front of you?… and these kids had to get up in the witness stand… Every one of them is affected by it, many are still under counselling… ”
He spoke about the question of how we will be remembered at our deaths.
Jeff spoke of his life philosophy, which is to ask what kind of a mark you will leave on the world: “What kind of commitment or what kind of job or how did you contribute to society while you were here? What were you known for? Ask your friends - ask your sons - ask your daughters - what do you see? What do you think about me? Look yourself in the mirror - ask yourself, ‘who am I?’ Are you lying to yourself, or can you look yourself in the eye?”…
Jeff spoke of the values he instilled in his sons: “…Integrity, humility, love, kindness.”
Jeff Metcalf has a lot of vitriol for the Frisco ISD at the 2 hour mark in the video, for allowing Karmelo Anthony to graduate despite the school rules saying murder is a compulsory expulsion, and also for allowing a white supremacist organisation to hold a rally at the stadium a couple of weeks after the murder of his son.
Jeff Metcalf not a racist
In my opinion the episode of the white supremacist rally, which happened soon after Austin’s death, proves that people should not make ideologically driven assumptions about other people. Online, people were calling Jeff Metcalf a racist, and apparently, because of the suppression order, he was unable to reply.
But the fact is, Jeff Metcalf sent his neighbour to the white supremacist rally, to inform them that he did not approve of them holding a rally in his son’s name. He told the rally leader this himself unknowingly on speaker phone; “Like I said before: I’m not a racist. Against whites. Against blacks.”
Then when the rally leader Jake Lane told him white people need to be outraged against blacks, he responded, “Mr Lane — you, my friend, are a part of the f***ing problem. I don’t condone what you do. I am not associated with you. Take my son’s name off your website. Do not use his image ever again. I don’t support you. Never mention my name…”
He says on the video that he does judge people on the content of their character: “I’m not a racist. If someone is an a***hole I don’t like them. Jake Lane is an a***hole. He’s a white a***hole.”
Calling someone a racist is a dreadful accusation, and when that accusation is made without any evidence at all, indeed, on a bunch of ideological assumptions (e.g. all white people are racist) all that it proves is that the person making that accusation is actually a racist — indeed, that is the very definition of racism. Of course, a real racist like Jake Lane should be called out.
According to Jeff, after this incident people online said, “Oh maybe Jeff Metcalf’s not a racist after all.”
Criticism of the Frisco school district
Last year, just before graduation time, Jeff and his wife went to the Frisco ISD officiating school board meeting.
“All we asked for is for Austin’s name to be read… empty seat, and give his brother a posthumous diploma… They said ‘No, we’ll give you some other options, we’ll give you a private ceremony, with just y’all. We’ve had more than one student die this year.’ “Before I could open my mouth, Momma bear let loose and said directly to her: ‘How many of those students were murdered on school property?’ She couldn’t answer. She answered for her. ‘One. Austin.’” After threatening to contact the media and social media to tell everyone that they were refusing to give a diploma to their son, and accusing them of negligence because students weren’t scanned meaning Karmelo managed to bring a knife into the stadium, they changed their mind.
After this, to some degree, the interview degenerates into a profanity laden rant against Minister Dominique Alexander, the character appointed by Karmelo Anthony’s parents to be their spokesperson, and against Karmelo Anthony’s father; a level of hostility that is quite comprehensible once you know the whole story; he does apologise later on for the level of profanity.
Then he answers questions from the audience — his description of the first of six swatting incidents is harrowing (anonymously calling police so that they SWAT the house, coming in with bullet proof vests and guns etc) — twenty five police cars — someone had called the police and claimed they heard gunshots at his house. This happened the same day he was thrown out of the press conference, a seminal incident that is described further on in this article.
He talks about pay it forward, a philosophy he practices, and more details about the trial, and mentions that he and his sons are (American) Indian, and have their Indian cards2.
Victim Impact Statement
In the victim impact statement at the trial, Jeff Metcalf also addressed the harassment from the media, social media and telephone calls directed at his family following the case.
Jeff was the target of six swatting calls and Austin’s mother, Jeff’s ex-wife Meghan, has been targeted twice. That the police do not have a system to prevent this kind of thing from happening more than once is staggering.
In the modern age, the influence of social media can indeed be a great evil — people have been doxxing and harassing both Karmelo Anthony’s parents and Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, which is not helpful.
Jeff said: “With a gag order, I can’t defend myself when people want to tear down my son’s memory. That time is over. I said from Day 1 this was never about race. It’s about right and wrong. We are all humans. We all bleed the same colour. You will face those consequences starting today.
Look me in the eye
After directing Anthony to look him in the eye, Jeff said in the victim impact statement that he has forgiven him; even so he believes accountability is necessary.
“You failed your parents, yourself and society. You don’t belong in this community… You can’t look me in the eyes, but you can stab my f--ing son?”
What does it mean, to be unable to look someone in the eye?
Perhaps Karmelo’s inability to look Austin’s father and brother in the eye is a positive sign: was it a sign of deep shame, which is at least an indication that he may be redeemable?
Or was it a sign of unrepentance, a dismissive attitude? A sign that he does not wish to acknowledge the humanity of his enemies, or the debt he owes Jeff Metcalf, because he took away Austin’s life?
Only God knows.
Closing statements
In the closing arguments, Prosecutor Bill Wirskye told the jury that deadly force has to be “immediately necessary” to be legal, and asked why a teen would bring a knife to a school sports event, and that it was “murder plain and simple.”
Karmelo Anthony’s defence attorney argued that it was self-defence, a reaction of fear during a “split second” moment after Metcalf made physical contact.
The verdict was given after only three hours of deliberations. Thirty five years in jail.
One of the onlookers said after the verdict that the jury “f—– up this boy’s life. I’ve got five boys. I ain’t got nothing to tell them no more… I’m angry, and I’m hurt.”
Of course, there is an explanation for the long sentence, and it comes down to the community’s reaction to Karmelo Anthony’s family’s behaviour.
Press conferences
This video shows Karmelo Anthony’s parents at their first press conference after Karmelo murdered Austin Metcalf. It is quite heart-rending. They are clearly very upset that their son has been arrested and is accused of murder. They are determined to defend him, that he is innocent. He has done nothing wrong.
All white jurors?
A year later, even after the trial, at which they were not consistently present, Anthony parents are still disputing some of the facts in the case.
They are saying there were only white jurors: there were actually 3 minorities present, including Asian and Indian jurors.
But in the jury interviews, which is designed to eliminate biased jurors, some of the potential jurors who were black were saying things like, “I don’t know if I’d feel right putting a brother in jail;” these are the type of statements that automatically disqualify jurors.
CBS interview and commentary
While the written article from CBS news was quite biased, the interview was not too bad. The gist of the CBS interview is that the Anthony parents are going to appeal, but the commentator has doubts as to whether they will be able to get the appeal started.
In another interview with Karmelo Anthony’s parents after the trial, their motivation for putting forward a particular version of events might well be that they desperately want their son to be innocent; this would be a very strong motivation. But they assert a version of the facts that is simply very implausible.
Megyn Kelly in her video fact checked some of their statements about the trial, pointing out inaccuracies — the witness statements almost unanimously say that Karmelo was not set upon by the whole football team, neither was he attacked. On the one hand, their ‘inaccuracies’ are quite egregious, however on the other hand, I’m not sure Megyn Kelly’s outrage and anger is helpful.
Minister Dominique Alexander.
Karmelo Anthony’s family hired ‘Minister’ Dominique Alexander as their spokesman, some sort of self-proclaimed ‘justice minister’ who was repeating the claim that Karmelo Anthony was assaulted and was merely responding to an attack from Austin’s team members — this is certainly ideologically driven gaslighting.
In the trial 21 witnesses, some black, agreed that Karmelo was asked to leave the tent and refused, and that no one assaulted him, but that the crowd gathered around Austin after the stabbing.
Dominique Alexander has been calling the trial a fight against white supremacy, in his twitter account:
“To the racists, the bigots, and those filled with hate who’ve targeted Karmelo, his family, and even myself – you do not intimidate us. We are not backing down.
“This case is yet another example of what it means to be Black in America, where even our self-defense is questioned, scrutinized and politicized. My involvement – like many others — came as a direct response to the overwhelming hate, threats and outside influence that have surrounded this case since day one.
He then asked Anthony’s supporters for prayers, to support due process, and to “stand with us in the fight against white supremacy.” https://www.foxnews.com/us/fight-against-white-supremacy-austin-metcalf-murder-case-indicted-suspects-spokesman
After the trial, in an astonishingly insensitive and morally blind statement, he claimed that the verdict illustrated, “Black lives do not matter in Collin County. After Trayvon Martin and so many countless names, it has shown us that Black life is not safe in Collin County.” The irony of this statement does not even have to be stated.
Guilt and the offer of redemption
Who would want to be in Karmelo Anthony’s shoes? To be saddled with that kind of guilt is unimaginable.
In a moment, in a single momentary split second decision, he changed the lives of two families forever, by ending another young man’s life. There is no way to change what he did, it can’t be undone, it can’t be reversed, except by God on the last day — when everyone will have to stand and answer for what they’ve done.
Such a split-second decision is a dreadful mistake — and we might say, there but for the grace of God go I. Who has not made split-second decisions that they’ve regretted?
But there is a prior decision, the real decision that decides what we will do in the split-second when we are tempted or challenged.
Murder takes place first in the heart: the thoughts and attitudes that people treasure in their hearts are the real cause of their evil actions — a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit3.
Karmelo Anthony’s parents have not been doing him a good service by encouraging him to deny his own culpability, or to blame other people’s fictional racism for his own predicament; they ought to be helping him to face up to what he has done.
At this stage, instead of trying to get a lighter sentence or be exonerated, surely he would be better off seeking forgiveness from God, especially since he has already been offered forgiveness by Jeff Metcalf?
And he should be using the fact of this tragedy, that he has caused, to turn his life around during his time in prison and to read the Bible and get to know Jesus Christ, and to learn to love his brothers, whether they be white or black or Asian or hispanic or indigenous, or any other race or identity under the sun.
Karmelo Anthony’s parents think they are securing Karmelo’s future by approaching this tragedy through the ideological lens of white guilt: what if, by insisting on Karmelo’s innocence in spite of the overwhelming weight of evidence, they are actually endangering his eternal future?
What if they are crystallising their son in his rebellion against God?
Lord have mercy on us all — for the ideology that blinds us one day might be our own ideology. Save us from being blinkered, Lord Jesus Christ.
What is it that causes murder?
This is what John wrote in his first letter to the church:
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer. By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:14-16
Hatred, in God’s sight, is murder. God sees the heart.
Anyone who teaches an evil ideology that urges people to hate others, to consider them as less than human on the basis of the colour of their skin, is guilty of teaching murder. And today, it certainly looks as through the leftist “Black Lives Matter” ideology has become everything the Ku Klux Klan was, in a mirror image, as it were.
Conversely, love for brothers (and sisters obviously) is the sign that we’ve passed from death to life.
If we look into the mirror of our own soul, and if we judge by our own actions, and if we can see that there is no hatred there towards anyone, even our greatest enemies, only love and forgiveness in our hearts and in our actions — then we can know that we have passed from death to life — this is greatly comforting knowledge — for it means that we know Jesus personally — nothing can be more wonderful than to know God’s Son — those who know Jesus have eternal life — they know the Creator of the universe, and the One through Whom all things were made — the Light of the world, the Word of Life. If we don’t find that love in our hearts, well then, we must turn to Christ and ask for forgiveness and grace.
Most commentators say that John in this epistle is specifically talking about loving Christian brothers and sisters in this passage. Well, this certainly seems to be the apostle John’s emphasis.
Yet, aren’t all brothers and sisters under one heavenly Father: sons and daughters of Adam and Eve?
All human beings are beloved in God’s sight.
But love between Christians is the sign that Jesus Christ is truly present among us — and the Metcalfs and the Anthonys are both, apparently, Christian families. Families that fear God.
And when someone has sinned, love begins with repentance and reparation, followed by forgiveness and restoration.
Astonishingly, Jeff Metcalf’s attitude of forgiveness and restoration was offered first, before the repentance even began. This mirrors the love of God. (Romans 5:8— But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)
When asked early in the trial, “How do you feel about Karmelo Anthony?” Jeff Metcalf answered, “I’ve already forgiven him.”
But when Jeff Metcalf approached the Anthony family with that attitude of forgiveness and restoration they completely rejected and humiliated him.
Karmelo’s family behaviour has cost their son many extra years in jail
Legal commentator Lead Attorney (video below) made a great and astonishingly prescient analysis eleven months ago of why Karmelo Anthony was going to be given such a huge sentence.
He points out that the jurors hang on every word the parents say. He says a murder case is lived on after the murder through the victim’s family, and that Jeff Metcalf in this trial acts as the conscience of the community.
It was early on in the trial, when reporters shoved a microphone in Jeff Metcalf’s face and said, “How do you feel about Karmelo Anthony?” that Jeff Metcalf answered, “I’ve already forgiven him.”
At this point, the Lead Attorney says that Karmelo’s family should have immediately called in the whole family and the lawyers and worked out a different approach, on the basis of Jeff Metcalf’s expression of forgiveness.
Instead, at a press conference where Jeff Metcalf turned up in peace to pray with the Anthony family, Karmelo Anthony’s mother kicked Jeff Metcalf out.
They showed hostility and aggression to a man who came to them ready to be reconciled, despite losing his own son to murder at the hands of their son4.
At that point, being offered such grace by Jeff Metcalf, the Anthony family should have immediately apologised, and expressed remorse, grace, patience and understanding. They should have prayed together and had reconciliation together, the Lead Attorney said, indeed, they should have allowed Jeff Metcalf to take centre stage.
One momentary split-second decision to use a knife began this whole story, another momentary split-second decision to throw the father of the murdered boy out of a press conference decided Karmelo Anthony’s future, decided that he would be incarcerated for the next thirty five years.
The Lead Attorney said eleven months ago that the sentiment of the community is the deciding factor in the sentence.
In that very moment, they lost the trial.
Because Jeff Metcalf was humiliated when he offered forgiveness, the community decided that Karmelo should go to jail for a very, very long time.
CONCLUSION5
Jeff Metcalf’s conclusion: “Pray for Meghan, pray for Hunter, pray for myself. Give glory to God. Live your life as Christlike as you can. No one’s perfect. None of us are. But I think if you get a good foundation, and you teach your children right from wrong, and give them a moral compass, they have the ability to take themselves further in life and develop into a piece of society that contributes something. And I hope and pray that our racial divide in this country gets smaller rather than wider. I hope that we learn to love, more than we love to hate. I can only speak for myself, but I know I’m doing my part. I’m only asking everyone else to do theirs.”
Addenda 2
My own experience of this high school education in America6
As often happens with these posts, I posted and emailed out a particular version, then have changed my mind and edited it. In this post I put some of the diversions from the main topic into the footnotes below, where I think they do belong. The main story is the story of Jeff Metcalf.
Court records: https://www4.wng.org/Karmello-Anthony-court-record.pdf
First fact check hall of infamy: The murderer is the victim here?
Much of the media coverage is culpable, for it has been distinctly biased towards seeing the murderer as the victim. He killed a guy, for goodness’ sake, what insanity is this? It’s the insanity of an ideology that blinds people to the humanity of others and human values.
Dr. Stacey Patton, a professor at Howard University’s School of Communications, published a substack blaming the victim: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/you-failed-your-son-first-howard-prof-blames-fathers-values-after-karmelo-anthony-murdered-his-son This attitude is totally unacceptable, especially in the light of Jeff Metcalf’s expressions of forgiveness and desire to pray with Karmelo Anthony’s family.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/karmelo-anthony-austin-metcalf-family-interview-murder-sentence/ In this interview, Karmelo Anthony’s father states that the jury was all-white — according to other sources, this is definitely not so, there were people of other races in the jury, and the reason why black people were not on the jury is that they ruled themselves out early on by making unacceptable statements in the jury questioning at the start of the trial, saying that they would not be looking at the evidence, but would be standing up for their ‘brother’.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/karmelo-anthony-found-guilty-murder-texas-high-school-stabbing-rcna349132 note even the editing in the NBC reporting is biased: “Father Jeff also spoke, announcing the establishment of a scholarship in his late son’s name and addressing the issue of race — Metcalf was white and Anthony is Black — which had been debated online and bled into the real-world.” (why does white have a lower case letter and black has an upper case letter?)
Thus does Satan attempt to twist everything good in the world: a new movement begins that has some seed of truth or is a great and just cause, but within a generation or two, it is corrupted and perverted by human sinfulness and demonic interference. This pattern is seen in many historical movements in the past.
Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood cards — certifies an individual possesses a specific fraction of Native American ancestry of a federally recognized Indian tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community.
We all need God’s grace, to be good trees — to have good thoughts and attitudes — in order to bear good fruit. We need our minds transformed into the mind of Christ — the mind of One who is full of love and kindness and mercy and justice.
This is akin to God’s Son being murdered, and God then offering reconciliation to all humanity, who murdered Him.
Addendum, added after emailing
What will help America?
Around forty years ago, as a teenager, I went to school in Seattle for a year — and I couldn’t help noticing how pronounced the racial divisions were in the lunch room — everyone sat with those of their own race. Everyone only associated with those of their own race.
I was astonished. It was not like this at the schools I had attended in Australia, an observation in which I took pride at the time.
But to be honest, I loved America — it truly is a beautiful country, and we were welcomed at school and at church, indeed the kindness of the church people in providing everything we needed when we arrived probably made me a Christian
And I learned more in biology and world history in that one year than in any unit in high school in Australia, (apart from music and physics which I loved and read about externally).
These teachers were older, in their fifties, and that generation of American teachers demanded memorisation of specific facts, something that is enormously important — generalisations and abstractions teach nothing, and much of my education in Australia had been generalisations and abstractions.
I learned at school in Seattle that you cannot know anything without knowing the specific facts, a lesson that has aided me in my writing these days, trying to sift through the facts to get at the truth.
Afterwards, whilst doing some units in sociology at University, I learned about bussing in the US, and I recalled when reading this that some of the teenagers at the Seattle school talked about being bussed away from their suburbs to go to school, something that caused them a degree of resentment.
Subsequent sociological research revealed that bussing, a measure designed to diminish racial divisions, might have actually exacerbated those divisions.
Pray
Only God can help the United States to become a unified country. Readers, please join me in praying for that great country, and for Australia, England, the countries of Europe.
It is hard not to see that we are in great peril in these days.
For divided no kingdom can stand. (see Matthew 12:22)