Outrage and disgust went viral this week as internet trolls posted doctored photos on social media of purported black protestors urinating on white murder victim Austin Metcalf’s grave.
The photos appear to show images of holders of X accounts “pissing” on Metcalf’s grave in reaction to 19-year-old killer Karmelo Anthony’s conviction earlier this week by a Texas jury.
“FUCK AUSTINNNNN METCALF,” one photo of a young women desecrating the grave was captioned, allegedly by an account attributed to “Mari Hicks.”
Anthony, who is black, was convicted of fatally stabbing Metcalf, who is white, in the heart after he refused to leave the stadium tent of the victim’s team at a high school track meet.
The conviction resulted in protests outside the courthouse and prompted some black leaders to say the trial was unfair because the jury did not have any black panelists.
Some of the photos were tagged with “#FreeKarmeloAnthony,” “#AustinMetcalf,” and even “#F–kEm.”
The urination photos on X became a racial flashpoint, causing the X platform to blow up with reaction after they were featured on the popular conservative account Libs of Tik Tok which claimed the individuals in the photos were BLM activists.
However, the New York Post reported, “There was no indication on any of the individuals’ accounts that they were associated with the Black Lives Matter organization.”
In fact, the accounts associated with the photos may not even be real, searches by Breitbart News of their names on X revealed.
As of Saturday, every account name attached to the photos failed to produce a real account in an X search, though the possibility remains they have deleted their accounts since posting.
That did not stop trolls from getting their desired reaction to what may be a race-based psyop — a term used by intelligence agencies to describe a psychological operation that uses a false narrative to manipulate a population.
The photos resulted in nearly 10,000 comments on the Libs of Tik Tok account and were reposted be scores of other users resulting in thousands of comments across the platform.
Many posted the Texas penal code citing that it was a two-year felony to desecrate a grave, also resulting in a $10,000 fine, while calling for the arrest of the people pictured.
“This is straight-up demonic,” one observer wrote. “Pissing on a murdered kid’s grave? These animals have zero soul, zero shame, and zero humanity left. Austin was just a 17-year-old boy. They stabbed him to death, celebrated the killer, then this is their “victory lap”?”
“The people that are pissing on Austin Metcalf’s grave are wondering why everyone hates them,” another wrote.
Some reactions were clearly racist against blacks and not worth reporting here.
The doctored photos “appeared to be part of a wider movement that believes the prosecution against Anthony was racist, claims stemming from the fact that he is black while his victim was white,” the Post reported.
False information has surrounded the Anthony murder case, including a claim by the killer’s father that the jury was “all white.”
As Breitbart News reported, that was not accurate. Of the 12 jurors selected for the trial, three were minorities, including Asians and Indians. The group was also diverse in terms of sex, with eight female jurors and four males.
Outspoken, lame duck Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) suggested in a podcast that not only was Anthony acting in self-defense, what he used was not a “deadly weapon” and was a one-inch Swiss Army knife “like with the little scissors and everything.”
In fact, the knife plunged into Metcalf’s heart was a camping brand “Ozark Trail,” and had a 3.5-inch serrated blade, the Collin County District Attorney’s Office told news outlets.
Perpetrator and victim had their fatal encounter at a Texas track meet in April, 2025 when Anthony was sitting in the tent of Metcalf’s team and Metcalf told him he had to go.
Anthony repeatedly refused, the jury was told, before finally saying, “Touch me and find out.”
Metcalf then pushed Anthony, according to trial reporting, who then whipped out a knife from his bag and plunged it into Metcalf’s chest, killing him.
Anthony was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced by the jury to 35 years instead of far less time he would have received had he been convicted of manslaughter.
The teen’s attorneys have already filed notice they plan to appeal his conviction.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
