Fundraisers for Karmelo Anthony raise over $16,000 before being deleted from GoFundMe

Multiple GoFundMe fundraisers have been taken offline after they claimed to be supporting Karmelo Anthony, the suspect charged with the murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. The fundraisers raised over $16,000

Anthony has been charged with first-degree murder and his bond has been set at $1,000,000. Anthony reportedly claimed self-defense, and in reaction, there were multiple GoFundMe fundraisers set up, claiming to be paying for his legal defense, multiple have been deleted.

One was started by organizer "Delores Martin." The archived GoFundMe page says, "Hi,my name is Kathy and I’m here on behalf of Karmelo Anthony. As you may have seen and heard about this incident in which an altercation took place and some one was fatally injured. Karmelo is a respectful young man with a 4.0 gpa with multiple scholarship offers who is also a great athlete with no criminal history.. Please help this family get this great young man a great lawyer! Even if you can’t give a lot anything will be greatly appreciated thank you." (sic)

The GoFundMe raised at least $40, but the page has been taken down.

There were multiple social media posts online showing screenshots of multiple GoFundMe pages being organized on behalf of Anthony.

Another GoFundMe page on an archived page, claiming to be supporting Anthony, was organized by "LaDarren Dewayne Trump" and said, "The Truth About Karmelo—Let’s Set the Record Straight! Enough with the misinformation. Let’s talk about facts." The live link does not show the page anymore.

The GoFundMe page also claimed that it was a "blatant lie" Austin as well as Hunter Metcalf had not seen Anthony before and that the page was supporting a "4.0 student's fight." At least $16,843 dollars were donated to the page before it was deleted.

 

Anthony’s father claimed that he was “not the aggressor” in the confrontation earlier this week. "He was not the one who started it." Another relative of Anthony’s claimed in a viral social media post that the Metcalf twins “jumped” Anthony and broke his phone, per WFFA. Some of the same claims have shown up in the GoFundMe pages that have been taken down.

Witnesses to the altercation said that they saw Anthony come over to the tent where he was then asked to leave by Austin Metcalf. Anthony then reached into his bag and said, "Touch me and see what happens," according to the witness reports. One witness said Metcalf touched Anthony, while another said he grabbed him, and then Anthony stabbed Metcalf.