Karmelo Anthony wrote "imma shoot the school up tmr" in a 2023 text — and nobody stopped him before he stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death at a Frisco track meet.
That threat, along with a mountain of evidence documenting Anthony's years-long spiral toward violence, was hidden from the jury that convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to 35 years. The reason: a "gentleman's agreement" between prosecutors and defense attorneys to "keep things clean" and stick only to "what happened under the tent" — the track team tent where Anthony killed Metcalf.
Collin County prosecutor Bill Wirskye revealed the suppressed evidence Friday during a hearing on Anthony's bid for a new trial. The picture that emerged is damning — not just of Anthony, but of every adult in the system who had warnings and did nothing.
Anthony's disciplinary record dates back to when he was 6 or 7 years old in Baton Rouge, where he punched another student and habitually violated rules, according to the Daily Mail's MaryAnn Martinez. By age 10, his behavior was so severe he was placed on a behavioral plan at the LSU Psychology Department. In 2021, he was again "getting into it with teachers." His phone, searched after the murder, revealed what Wirskye called "an obsession with fighting." Texts showed Anthony hitting a girl in the face. A note contained a racist rant. He talked about using assault rifles. He texted about being "low key on the verge" and fantasized about stabbing someone and licking the blood from the blade.
Hours before the fatal stabbing, Anthony's ex-girlfriend told a vice principal he was stalking her. She received a photo of a knife from him. The school had every warning. Metcalf ended up dead anyway.
The New York Post reported that the backroom deal cut both ways: in exchange for suppressing Anthony's violent history, prosecutors also agreed to keep the jury from hearing about Metcalf's own juvenile record — which included racist graffiti featuring the N-word, "KKK," "Kill all Black people," and "Heil Hitler," for which Metcalf and his twin brother received 12 months probation.
Anthony's new attorney, Russell Wilson, is arguing the "shadow docket" corrupted the trial. Wirskye testified that he offered the agreement to avoid character attacks on both sides. The deal also kept Anthony off the witness stand.
The Gateway Pundit framed the revelations as evidence of a systemic failure suppressed by legal maneuvering. The Post acknowledged the suppressed evidence but gave more weight to the deal's two-way nature, including the victim's own ugly history.
Here's what matters for ordinary Americans: a student explicitly threatened to shoot up a school, had a documented history of violence stretching back to first grade, was reported for stalking the same day he committed murder — and the system that was supposed to protect kids kept all of it hidden. Not because it wasn't true. Because it was inconvenient for the trial both sides wanted to run clean.
The question nobody in authority is answering: who decided a kid who wrote "imma shoot the school up tmr" was safe to stay in the building?
