Cain and Abel

 

 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

 

Whatever comes out at the trial of Karmelo Anthony will not satisfy either side and will not be “the truth!” When Karmelo took it upon himself to kill Austin Metcalf he forever etched himself into Texas history and there is no way to scratch him out!

The basics are simple. There was a track meet. At track events tents are set up for the various groups to congregate. Now let’s look at the situation. A track meet. Run run run as fast as you can, get a blue ribbon be the prom queen’s man! This was not a boxing match. Not a football game. Not even arm wrestling. Just a bunch of kids being . . . kids!

Austin was, for some reason, hanging out at his proper tent. I don’t know. Maybe he was in charge of the Gatorade. I don’t even know if he was a contestant. Just there! For one reason or another Karmelo shows up and insinuates himself on said tent. It’s been said that there may have been rain.  Let’s examine this. Kids. Meeting in friendly competition that except for friends and family won’t mean a single thing come Monday. Their grandkids will dig a ribbon out of a cardboard box sometime in the year 2080 and ask, “Hey grandpa, what’s this and grandpa will scratch his head and make something up. That kind of an event.

This was in Texas, just north of Dallas so these were two urban kids. (Yes, we have those in Texas!) I don’t know if these two boys knew each other but I understand that they were from different schools in the region and both played football so there is a high probability they have faced each other on the gridiron.

Ok! Kid wanders into a tent, not his own, on a warm day in Texas. Maybe some rain. Normally, after directing him to the proper tent he would have been offered a drink, and/or a hotdog or something. That’s standard. When I gave speeches in Austin, we gave hot dogs to the State Cops who were guarding us just in case we tried to overthrow the government. A track meet is not a do or die situation.

Now, according to the police report the intruder gave some token resistance about going to his own tent. Again. Karmelo was allergic to his tent for a reason, and he wasn’t there to participate in a Black Lives Matter rally. Was he a competitor? Someone said he was expelled. A friend of a friend? Tag alongs are common at such events.  Somebody’s ride? I don’t know. All I know is that he was told that his tent was over there!

Now this is where it gets sticky. For reasons unknown Karmelo brought a knife. And not a Barlow pocketknife, but one of those killing knives you see in the movies. You know, flip flip flip . . . knife! Apparently, he had it in his backpack, I don’t know. When you do an article like this you have to assume a lot of things. Let’s just agree he had a knife and Austin didn’t. Let’s also speculate that he knew that wasn’t his area and he deliberately found his way there. There’s nothing wrong with that unless he went there for the wrong reasons. Was he familiar with Austin? Like I said, these two kids may have played football with each other.

Anyway, he refused to leave. Then he began to rummage through one of the backpacks in Austin’s tent. Why? Was this the reason he was there? When he was challenged by Austin, he responded with something like, “Touch me and see what you get.” Good, bad, or indifferent Karmelo was at a track meet. He was on a school football squad. That tells me that he was in good standing with his school. That also suggests that he wasn’t likely to do something that could get him thrown off the field and may possibly bleed over to his school. Of course, it was said that he’d had a knife issue before, was expelled at the time, low GPS, yada yada yada. We’ll have to wait for the trial. So, let’s look at what we do have.

Uninvited guest under an open tent. Possible rain. Why didn’t he go to his own tent? Maybe expelled. They’d know him there. Austin and company didn’t. Asked to leave. Responds with a challenge. It’s Texas. Two football players. Under normal conditions there may result in some words, shoving, and maybe even a fight. My money’s on the black guy. Yeah, I know. Just live with it, ok? But that’s not what happened. According to reports Karmelo went through a backpack and came up with some earbuds or something. Again, suppositions here. I would assume Austin took exception to this and said, “I say, old man! Those are not yours!” You know he didn’t say that. He most likely tried to relieve Karmelo of said instrument!

And let’s talk about logistics. From the fact that we know Austin was stabbed directly in the heart it stands to reason the two were within an arm’s reach of each other. Also, why did the stab-ER make a bee line for the stab-EE’s bag. I was told it was his. And why stab at all? It was all so quick it appeared planned, but that’s just my opinion. I can’t believe Karmelo was scared of Austin.

You will not get the whole story from the trial, but common sense should tell you that there was a bit more here than earbuds. Years and years from now with Karmelo being denied parole for the thirty-fifth time he will of course have found Jesus and will express all kinds of remorse as he sells his books and paintings that he does in his cell, but Austin will never make parole. He will never have a family, never have grandchildren on his knee, and his twin brother will never get over this but that’s life, death because of a stupid temper fit at a North Texas track meet. I hope the earbuds were worth it.