What annoys me is that a life has been taken, and it seems like the whole world is taking the side of Karmelo Anthony. He took a life.

From the footage that has been released and the eyewitnesses, it never needed to come to that. "He put his hands on me," Karmelo stated in one released video. Okay. Yeah. Austin Metcalf put his hands on him, but did Austin have a weapon? No. Did he have an intention to kill or permanently maim Carmelo? Also, no. From the stated case, it was a push.

During a severe rainstorm and thunderstorm delay at the track meet, 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony went into a bleacher tent belonging to a rival school (Memorial High School) to escape the downpour, where he was initially chatting with a friend.

Because it was a rival school's ten, multiple students, including Austin Metcalf's twin brother, Hunter, confronted Anthony and asked him to leave. Witnesses testified that Anthony was asked to move out of the tent as many as fifteen times over a two-minute period, but he refused.

As the argument grew heated, Anthony reached his hand into his backpack, opened it, and told Austin Metcalf, "Touch me and see what happens."

Believing Anthony was bluffing about having a weapon, Austin replied, "You don't have anything in that backpack," and stepped forward to push, shove, or grab Anthony to physically force him out of the tent.

The moment Austin made physical contact, Anthony immediately pulled a concealed knife out of the bag and plunged it once into Austin's chest before fleeing the scene.

You can find all of this information on: Wikipedia, Capital B News, and CBS News.

Given all of this, what Karmelo did wasn't self-defense. He could have de-escalated the situation, walked away, or defended himself without lethal means. Despite what a lot of people are saying, race has nothing to do with it. If roles had been reversed and Karmelo had been killed by Austin, Austin would have went to jail with a 35-year-long, if not longer, sentence.

And if Karmelo had to defend himself physically, he has hands, doesn't he? A good punch wouldn't have gotten him locked up or taken the life of another student.