On April 2, 2025, Austin Metcalf, an American 17-year-old student at Memorial High School, was fatally stabbed while attending a school track meet in Frisco, Texas. He died of his injuries at the scene.
A 17-year-old Centennial High School student was arrested for the stabbing and charged with murder. On April 14, 2025, he was placed on house arrest with an ankle monitor.
Metcalf was a junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, Texas, where he had a 4.0 GPA. He was MVP linebacker of the football team and participated in track and field. Metcalf’s father said that his playing football was his “pride and joy”. His twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, who played football together, stated that he always looked up to Austin. According to his profile on Hudl, Metcalf was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, weighed 225 pounds (102 kg) and was member of the class of 2026. A funeral was organized for Metcalf on April 9, 2025, where his family thanked the people for cooperation and requested privacy from media. Metcalf’s online obituary celebrated his hobby in sports and fishing trips with his father and brother.
The alleged perpetrator was a student and football player at Centennial High School, also in Frisco. Witnesses say that the pair did not know each other. The alleged perpetrator was a prominent athlete of his school’s football team, the “Memorial Warriors” and participated in multiple track events. According to his father, he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was a captain of a football team and a track team who held two part-time jobs. He was planning to graduate and go to college the following month. He is the oldest of four children in his family. According to his lawyer, he did not have any previous criminal history before the stabbing on April 2. According to the alleged perpetrator’s profile on Hudl, he was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighted 160 pounds and was a member of the Titans Varsity football team. He was also a member of the graduation class of 2025.
The stabbing occurred at the Memorial High School tent in the David Kuykendall Stadium at approximately 10 a.m. (CDT) on April 2, 2025. The altercation started when Metcalf asked the accused to move out from the Memorial team’s tent. When the accused refused, a verbal argument between them ensued. During the argument, the accused told Metcalf: “Touch me and see what happens” while reaching his hand into his backpack. Metcalf grabbed the accused and asked him to leave the tent again; in response, the accused said “punch me and see what happens”, then pulled out a black knife from the backpack and stabbed him once in the chest before running away. The bloody knife was later found by police in the bleachers. After being stabbed, Austin grabbed his chest and told everyone to get help. When police arrived, he was not conscious or breathing. Multiple athletic trainers were performing CPR on him. Despite the efforts of his brother, responding EMTs and other people to revive him, Austin Metcalf was pronounced dead minutes after arriving in the hospital.
The accused was quickly arrested by police. According to a responding officer, the accused was “emotional” and “crying hysterically” after he was arrested. The officer then communicated to others that he had the suspect in custody, to which the accused said, “I’m not ‘alleged.’ I did it.” As he was being escorted to the police car, the accused reportedly said: “He put his hands on me, I told him not to”. While he was sitting at the back seat of the police car, he asked if Metcalf is “going to be ok” and reportedly asked the officer if what he did was considered self-defense.
The accused was charged with murder and transported to the Collin County jail. He was charged as an adult, since, under the Texas criminal justice system, defendants age 17 and older are prosecuted as adults.
On April 14, 2025, Judge Angela Tucker agreed to release the accused from jail, citing his clean criminal record and background in academics and athletics. He was placed under house arrest with an ankle monitor, and his bond had also been lowered from $1 million to $250,000. According to the conditions of his release, he must be supervised by a parent or an adult at all times; he is also required to contact the judge’s bailiff every Friday morning. He is prohibited from using social media and is banned from contacting the family of Austin Metcalf.
Mike Howard, lawyer for the accused, said that he would plead not guilty and claim self-defense at his future trial. According to Collin County district attorney Greg Willis, the accused will not be eligible to be sentenced to life without parole or the death penalty, because he is a juvenile. A bond hearing was scheduled for April 28.
The case has garnered widespread attention on social media and right-wing news media, becoming a right-wing cause célèbre. Misinformation about the case has been promoted by supporters of Metcalf as well as by supporters of the accused. The mother of the accused stated that the family has received death threats. Both families have received swatting calls, resulting in SWAT teams coming to their homes.
On April 17, Metcalf’s father attended a press conference hosted by the parents of the accused and the Next Generation Action Network, a nonprofit organization working with the accused’s family. According to him, he thought that it would be “an opportunity for the two families to come together in a productive way”. After 40 minutes of him being there, he was asked to leave by the organizers and then escorted out by Dallas police after being threatened with trespassing charges. NGAN founder, Dominique Alexander, said that the father’s presence was “very disrespectful” to the “dignity of their son”. He also said that he wasn’t invited and him being near the accused’s family is “inappropriate”. A few hours after he was kicked out of the conference, gunshots were reported at Metcalf’s family house. The call was later confirmed to be a swatting. According to the father, approximately 20 officers searched his residence.
According to the Next Generation Action Network (NGAN), the accused was moved to an “undisclosed location” after his release from jail following an “alarming increase in death threats, continued harassment, and physical intimidation” targeted at him and his family’s home. Reportedly, various strangers have visited the home, taken photos of their property, loitered and impersonated food delivery drivers. The family has also received concerning material in the mail, including Metcalf’s obituary. The accused’s father resigned from his job because of the doxxing and harassment targeting his employer on social media. Angela Tucker, the judge who lowered the bond to $250,000, has been doxed and received multiple threats from unknown people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly investigating the incident. The local sheriff’s office is also investigating on whether anyone shared her personal information online.
The family of the accused set up a crowdfunding campaign on GiveSendGo to pay for legal defense, raising over $453,000 in donations by April 17 and over $515,000 by May 1. They had received significant financial support from some members of the Black community. GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were launched by Metcalf’s father and the owner of the pizzeria in Frisco where Metcalf worked part-time, raising nearly $250,000.
The founder of the GiveSendGo company, Jacob Wells, has compared the case to Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny, stating that the accused should be afforded the “same presumption of innocence” as anyone else. On May 2, GiveSendGo disabled the comments on the accused’s fundraiser page, citing an “unacceptable volume of racist and derogatory remarks”.
The family of the accused was attacked by online critics after a news report from Daily Mail falsely claimed that he is living in a “luxurious” $900,000 house with his family due to him taking thousands of dollars from donations. Later, it was proven that the claims were false and that the family had not withdrawn any money from donations.
Shortly after Metcalf’s death, an X account impersonating Frisco Police Chief began spreading misinformation. The account posted a fake autopsy report that stated that Metcalf died from MDMA-fentanyl overdose. The post gained millions of views on X and other social media platforms. The Frisco Police Department and the FBI are investigating the account for police impersonation.
On April 19, 2025, the group Protect White Americans held a protest at the location where Metcalf was killed, David Kuykendall Stadium. Protestors demanded the accused be returned to police custody until his trial. One counter protestor who pepper-sprayed an attendee and another who antagonized attendees were both arrested. Metcalf’s father told the organizer of the protest that he disapproved of his efforts, stating, “You’re trying to create more race divide than bridging the gap. I do not condone anything you do.” Metcalf’s father also requested that his son’s school portrait be removed from the website for Protect White Americans.
Why in the hell does he get called “the accused”?? He is a murderer. He stabbed a kid in the heart and will pay for that decision for the rest of his impulsive life.
jail for life is the only option here