A crowdfunding platform is standing by their decision to allow a fundraiser for Karmelo Anthony, the teen accused of fatally stabbing a Texas high school football player during a track meet last week.
There’s ben a lot of outrage over the fundraising campaign, which has raised over $300,000 for the 17-year old who’s been charged with the murder of Austin Metcalf, a 17-year old linebacker from Frisco Memorial High School.
According to the police report, a witness told police that Metcalf and his teammates were sitting under their school tent in the bleachers at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas when Anthony, who was a student at an opposing school, came to sit under their tent. The witness says that Metcalf told Anthony that he couldn’t sit there because he wasn’t a student at their high school.
A separate witness told police that Anthony grabbed his bag, reached inside, and told Metcalf to touch him and “see what happens.” The witness says that nobody believed Anthony really had a weapon, and that Metcalf then touched Anthony to try to get him to move. Anthony again told Metcalf to “punch him and see what happens,” and a short time later, Metcalf grabbed Anthony to remove him from under their tent.
The witness reported that Anthony then pulled out a black knife and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before running away, leaving Metcalf to ask the others nearby to get help.
Once police arrived on the scene, Anthony was quickly identified as the suspect and detained, quickly telling police that he was “protecting himself” and that Metcalf “put his hands on me” and that Anthony had “told him not to.”
When an officer identified Anthony as the “alleged” suspect, Anthony reportedly responded:
“I’m not alleged, I did it.”
Metcalf passed away in his twin brother Hunter’s arms, according to his father Jeff Metcalf:
“They were twins, identical twins, and his brother was holding on to him, trying to make it stop bleeding, and he died in his brother’s arms.”
Anthony claims that the attack was self-defense, but has been charged with murder and is being held on a $1 million bond. But his parents are defending their son, with his dad claiming that Anthony was not the aggressor in the attack:
“Everyone has already made their assumptions about my son, but he’s not what they’re making him out to be. He’s a good kid. He works two jobs. He’s an A student, has a 3.7 GPA.”
And a GoFundMe that was started last week for Anthony claimed that the twins “jumped” Anthony and that the media was trying to destroy the teen’s name for defending himself:
“So ask yourself: If two 200+ lb attackers came at YOUR child, what would you expect them to do?
And yet, despite everything, the media is trying to destroy Karmelo’s name. They keep posting a picture of him with an AIRSOFT GUN—not even a real firearm—to manipulate public perception. Why? Because they want to paint him as a criminal instead of a victim…
A life was lost, and that is tragic. But what’s also tragic is the way the media is twisting this story to fit their own agenda.
Karmelo defended himself against violent aggressors. That is NOT a crime.”
That fundraiser has since been removed by GoFundMe, but the family started an official campaign on GiveSendGo, another fundraising platform that was established back in 2014 in response to what the founders saw as an anti-Christian bias from GoFundMe.
GiveSendGo’s founders describe the platform as respecting free speech and rejecting censorship, and the platform has come under fire from the left for allowing fundraisers for January 6th defendants and Kyle Rittenhouse.
And now, the company is defending itself from people who are upset that the platform is allowing the fundraiser for Anthony, which has raised over $300,000 so far, to stay up.
In a message posted to X, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells said that removing the fundraiser would set a precedent when the issue inevitably rises again in the future over a fundraiser for someone on the right:
“People are mad about our stance to allow Karmelo Anthony family a campaign on GiveSendGo and I get it, it is a horrible situation. There are even calls for a boycott, but because I know a similar scenario will happen again for someone on the “right” and our competitor won’t allow them a campaign even though it is a legal endeavor, people will be back to using GiveSendGo because we are the only fundraising platform that truly stands on Freedom and principle.”
And CEO Heather Wilson raised the same points in a lengthy message, comparing the outrage to the backlash that the platform received for allowing fundraisers for Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny, the Marine charged with murder over the choking death of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway:
“I wanted to share my perspective on the ongoing discussion about whether we should allow fundraising for individuals who’ve been charged with a crime.
We’re now seeing similar outrage from the right as we once did from the left when we allowed campaigns for Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny. In both of those cases, we upheld the principle that someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Shouldn’t that same standard apply here as well?”
I wanted to share my perspective on the ongoing discussion about whether we should allow fundraising for individuals who’ve been charged with a crime.
We’re now seeing similar outrage from the right as we once did from the left when we allowed campaigns for Kyle Rittenhouse and…— Heather Wilson (@HeathGiveSendGo) April 7, 2025
And she’s right. You can’t praise the platform for allowing some fundraisers and demand that they remove others. As long as they’re consistent, I’d much rather see them allow some campaigns I may not agree with than remove others that I do support.
Isn’t that what freedom of speech is all about anyway? Protecting unpopular speech?
