The family of Austin Metcalf, a Texas teen fatally stabbed at a track meet earlier this month, was targeted Thursday when their home was swatted.
A shooting was falsely reported at the family’s Frisco residence in what authorities described as a “swatting” incident, according to Fox 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth.
Swatting involves a prank call to emergency services involving a false threat, prompting a SWAT team or other law enforcement to respond to the location where the alleged crime is taking place.
Austin’s father, Jeff Metcalf, told TMZ Sports that nearly two dozen officers searched the home after receiving a call about a gunshot. They found nothing suspicious and, ruling the incident a result of swatting, left the residence.
The Daily News has reached out to Frisco police for additional information.
Hours before the swatting, the family of 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, who has been charged with Metcalf’s murder, spoke during a news conference. Jeff Metcalf attended the conference uninvited and reportedly refused to leave. That is, until cops asked him to.
Dominique Alexander, president of the Next Generation Action Network, a Dallas nonprofit helping to represent Anthony, decried Metcalf’s attendance as “a disrespect to the dignity of his son. … He knows that it is inappropriate to be near this family.”
The death of Austin Metcalf occurred on April 2 after he got into an altercation with Anthony during a track meet in Frisco, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Witnesses told police that Anthony was asked to leave a tent for Memorial High School, where Austin was a junior, though Anthony attended Centennial High.
It was then they say Anthony told Metcalf to “touch me and see what happens,” at which point Metcalf pushed Anthony to get him out of the tent. Anthony then allegedly reached into a bag and stabbed Austin in the chest with a knife. It’s unclear why Anthony had a knife at the school event.
The 17-year-old suspect allegedly admitted to the crime, according to the arrest report cited by Fox 4. He also asked officers if his actions “could be considered self-defense,” since Metcalf had “put his hands” on him.
Anthony is currently on house arrest, having been released this week after his family posted $250,000 bond, which was reduced from $1 million.
