Frisco stabbing unleashed a flood of online hate and misinformation

FRISCO — Two weeks after 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was stabbed and killed at a track meet, after the racist slurs exploded online and a phony autopsy circulated, a 40-foot bus pulled into town. 

Jake Lang, a far-right influencer from Florida, arrived in Texas last April to host a Protect White Americans rally, condemning what he called an epidemic of Black-on-white violence. Standing outside the same Frisco ISD stadium where Austin was stabbed, Lang spoke into a cell phone to the grieving father he sought to recruit. “Why will you not stand with me?” Lang asked Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father.

Metcalf paused for a moment. “OK, my turn to speak,” he told Lang, as a small crowd listened on speaker phone. “You are part of the f—ing problem, my friend. You’re trying to create more race divide than bridging the gap. I do not condone anything you do…You take my son’s face off your website.”

“That’s white guilt,” Lang interrupted. “You’re creating more Austin Metcalfs with your weakness, sir.”

The stunning encounter was viewed thousands of times on social media, capturing a father’s grief and the grueling circus that entangled Austin’s death. Austin was white. Karmelo Anthony, whose trial begins June 1, is Black. 

Within hours of the stabbing, misinformation and hate flooded X and other social media platforms, prompting threats and harassment against both families. Influencers raced to shape narratives, stoke racial fears and expand their reach.

The ordeal forced two grieving families and a devastated community into the agonizing national glare. With the first-degree murder trial against Karmelo set to begin next week, the online wildfire has reignited, obscuring the facts in a case that has drawn national attention.

“This was a tragic and chaotic event,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said Monday. “We had a lot of noise from outside agitators who wanted to turn this into something it was not. Our community is focused more on healing than paying attention to the noise.”

Related: Video: Austin Metcalf’s father tells ‘Protect White Americans’ leader he’s creating racial divide

It rained the morning of April 2 at David Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, sending athletes scurrying beneath tents to wait out the delay. According to a police report, Karmelo, a student at Frisco Centennial, took cover under a tent designated for a rival high school, Frisco Memorial. Austin, a Memorial student, told him to move.

Witnesses said Karmelo reached inside his bag and said, “Touch me and see what happens,” according to the police report. Austin touched him, and Karmelo replied, “Punch me and see what happens.” The police report says Austin grabbed Karmelo, who pulled out a knife and stabbed him once in the chest and ran. He was arrested minutes later and told police through hysterical tears that he was defending himself.

Austin died in the arms of his twin brother, Hunter. 

Related: ‘We were one person’: Twin brother, dad remember Frisco teen fatally stabbed at track meet

The police report never mentioned race as a motive, but that mattered little online, where chaos unraveled almost immediately. 

Lang, who was pardoned for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, called Karmelo a symbol of “degenerate Black culture” and a “young Black thug,” who hated white people and was motivated by hip-hop culture to kill. Reached via X, Lang told The Dallas Morning News that he was motivated by a desire to stand up for Austin. 

Conservative influencer Benny Johnson called for the death penalty to “send a message.” Karmelo, who faces life in prison, is not eligible for the death penalty because was a minor. Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator and podcaster, called Karmelo’s family “absolute scumbags” and said, “Young black males are violent to a wildly, outrageously disproportionate degree” in a post. The hashtag “White Lives Matter” trended on social media.

Mariana Rosenblat, a policy advisor for NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights who studies rhetoric and real-world violence, tracked the avalanche of posts in the weeks after the stabbing. White supremacists used Austin’s death to recruit followers and call for retaliation by framing the event as evidence of systematic anti-white violence rather than an isolated altercation, she said. 

“They seized on his death to amplify their story that there’s a growing threat against white people and communities,” Rosenblat said. “These networks are always on the lookout for a trigger event to drill down their narratives.”

The day after he died, Austin’s father appeared on Fox News to urge people to stop spreading unfounded rumors. 

“My son is gone, and he’ll never come home again,” Jeff Metcalf said. “I want to clarify something right off the start. This was not a race thing, and this is not a political thing. Please do not comment if you do not know what happened. This is a human being thing. This person made a bad choice, and it affected both his family and my family forever.”

Related: Frisco police, FBI probing ‘fake’ social posts posing as chief after fatal track stabbing

A grieving father’s plea did little to stem the flow of misinformation and hate. 

Some alleged online that Austin and his twin brother used racial slurs before Karmelo stabbed Austin. Others mocked Austin’s death and said without evidence that he was a known bully. Fake police statements and a phony autopsy soon circulated on social media, saying Austin died of a drug overdose. 

The barrage of posts was not aimed at establishing a single false storyline, said Jeffrey Layne Blevins, a University of Cincinnati professor who studies the effects of misinformation and disinformation. Rather, extremists typically aim to distort an entire story and sow distrust in our institutions, including law enforcement and the courts. 

“It’s a firehose of falsehoods,” Blevins said. “It’s designed to create chaos and confusion.”

Neither of the profiles of the teenagers that emerged online appeared to be based in truth. By most accounts, both were good students and committed athletes who were well-liked by their peers. Austin’s family said he had a 4.0 GPA and was the MVP of the football team at Frisco’s Memorial High School. He hoped to play college football. Karmelo’s family said he was captain of the football and track teams at Frisco Centennial High School, had two part-time jobs and was an A-student with college plans.

Online fundraisers for both boys’ families generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, spawning new conspiracies. Tabloids reported the viral rumor that Karmelo’s family used money from an online fundraiser to rent a $900,000 house. The family had actually been living in the home before the stabbing.

GoFundMe deleted several fundraisers for Karmelo that were set up without the family’s permission and violated the company’s rules against raising money for the legal defense of violent crimes.

At the time, Frisco ISD Superintendent Mike Waldrip tried to calm the frenzy.

“Fake social media profiles, false accusations and fraudulent fundraising campaigns are being used to sow division and profit from tragedy,” Waldrip wrote in an email to the community a week after the stabbing. “Let me be clear: Frisco ISD will not tolerate misinformation, manipulation or any attempt to undermine our community.”

Repeatedly, the furor online spilled into the real world. On April 14, state District Judge Angela Tucker agreed to lower Karmelo’s bond to $250,000 from $1 million. That afternoon, Karmelo was released to home detention with an ankle monitor.

Tucker was doxxed when her personal information, including her photograph and home address, was released online.

Three days later, the Dallas-based civil rights organization Next Generation Action Network organized a news conference for Karmelo’s family to address the frenzy of rumors. The elder Metcalf showed up, unannounced, and was escorted out by police.

Dominique Alexander, a spokesperson for the family at the time, called his presence disrespectful. Metcalf said he only wanted to pray with Karmelo’s family.

Minutes later, Kala Hayes, Karmelo’s mother, stood before a row of television cameras and said her family had received death threats, and their 13-year-old daughter was afraid to sleep in her own room.

“Our family has been under attack,” she said. “Whatever you think happened between Karmelo and the Metcalf boys, my three younger children, my husband and I didn’t do anything to deserve to be threatened, harassed and lied about.” 

With her husband standing next to her, Hayes continued through tears.

“Our son deserves the same rights under the law that everyone is afforded,” she said. “He has been raised in a two-parent home with structure, stability, love, and we put God first in everything we do. We believe in the Constitution. We believe in the laws of this state, but those laws must apply to all of us, not just some of us.”

Hayes then addressed the Metcalf family. “To the family that experienced that loss,” she said, “my heart truly goes out to you.”

That night, Metcalf’s house was swatted in a hoax 911 call, drawing a heavy police presence. That was the first of six swatting calls against Austin’s father.

Metcalf was forced to resign from his real estate job for safety reasons. Karmelo’s father, Andrew Anthony, took a leave of absence from his job as a financial manager for a car dealership. Facing a deluge of threats, the Anthony family moved to an undisclosed location.

The whirlwind of falsehoods is also affecting the criminal case.

In July, district court Judge John Roach, who will preside over the trial next month, issued a gag order for family members, attorneys and representatives for both teenagers. Due to the gag order, the families were unable to speak with The News.

Related: In national spotlight, Frisco leaders want ‘justice guided by truth’ in stabbing case

Family members could no longer speak in public, but others could. 

Some two hours southeast of Frisco, Sarah Fields has closely tracked the case, publishing a stream of posts every week. Fields, a Smith County Republican precinct chair and mother of four, was among the first journalists to publish the police report and grew close to the Metcalf family.

In recent months, Fields said she, too, has received a torrent of death threats. One man was jailed on stalking charges. Since she began following the case, Fields gained tens of thousands of followers on Facebook and X, where she also posts anti-transgender content and news about education and Texas politics.

Fields said she was drawn to the Frisco case because she was disturbed by the level of animosity directed at the Metcalfs from both sides.

“It broke my heart. It’s abhorrent,” said Fields, who describes herself as an independent journalist. “I have never seen a victim’s family treated so badly.”

Online, Fields frequently sparred with Alexander, the Dallas activist and president of Next Generation Action Network. Last year, she pointed out his convictions on family violence charges in a series of posts. 

Alexander accused Fields of racism and promoting misinformation, including when she suggested the Anthony family used the proceeds from a fundraiser to rent their home. She later posted a clarification to X. 

At a news conference last week, Alexander urged calm as the trial nears. Both sides have decried strict rules set for the trial, including the judge’s decision to prohibit audio or visual recording. 

“As an advocacy organization,” he said, “our role is to ensure that Karmelo Anthony is afforded a fair trial, free from prejudice, bias, misinformation, racial hostility, or any outside influence that could impact the outcome of this case.”

Related: Family of Frisco stabbing suspect ‘under attack’ with harassment, threats, mother says

The steady drum of online posts is growing. Yuri Neves, who tracks online extremism for global violence prevention company Moonshot, said social media posts about the case last April prompted the highest daily spike in threats against Black communities in an eight-month period. 

With the trial approaching, Neves said the volume of posts is multiplying, frequently targeting the presiding judge and Karmelo’s family. 

“Online hate speech and calls for violence have a direct correlation with real-world violence,” Neves said. “But hate speech alone is dehumanizing an entire ethnic group.”

Months after his bus — emblazoned with faces of American presidents, including Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Jr. — arrived in Frisco, Lang continued targeting the Metcalf family. In post after post on X, he blamed a grieving father for his son’s death. 

In one comment last year on X, Lang complained his posts were not gaining enough new followers and said he planned to launch his own social media app. He has not indicated whether he plans to attend the trial. 

Frisco police said they are prepared for protests when the case, dissected for months online, heads to a courtroom.