“This Was Going to Be His Year” — Austin Metcalf’s Twin Brother and Father Speak for the First Time About the Son and Brother They Lost

Four days before he was killed, Austin Metcalf went on a hunting trip with his father and his twin brother. On that trip, he took down his first wild hog. His father Jeff said it is a moment he will carry with him for the rest of his life.

That was Saturday. By Wednesday, Austin was gone.

“We Were One Person”

Hunter Metcalf, Austin’s identical twin, has been carrying something since April 2nd, 2025 that most people will never be asked to carry. He was at Kuykendall Stadium when the argument broke out. He was there when the knife came out. And he was the one who held his brother in his arms in the moments that followed — before first responders arrived, before anyone fully understood what had happened, before the world outside that stadium knew that a 17-year-old had just been stabbed in the chest.

“We were one person,” Hunter told the Dallas News. “We did everything together, everything the same. We connected so well.”

Identical twins share something that is almost impossible to explain to someone who has never experienced it — a closeness that goes beyond friendship or even family. For Hunter, losing Austin was not just losing a brother. It was losing half of himself.

A Father’s Final Moments

Jeff Metcalf arrived at the scene to find his son on a gurney, covered in blood, a hole in his chest. He followed to the hospital. And in the final moments before Austin was gone, Jeff did the only thing a father can do when there is nothing left to do.

He kissed his son’s cold forehead. He ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’m so proud,” Jeff said afterward. “Of both of my sons. They were, and still are, great men.”

The Son the World Is Only Now Getting to Know

Austin Metcalf was a junior at Memorial High School. A National Honor Society member with a 4.0 GPA. An all-district linebacker and his team’s MVP. A teenager who was beginning to receive college football offers — whose senior year, by every measure, was shaping up to be the one where everything came together.

“This was going to be his year,” Jeff said.

He hunted and fished with his father and brother. He was inseparable from Hunter. He was, by every account from the people who loved him most, exactly the kind of person who should have had decades ahead of him.

A Father’s Message to the World

Jeff Metcalf did not use his grief to call for revenge or to demand a particular outcome from the courtroom. He used it to say something simpler — and harder.

“I pray that none of this happens to another family. If you can’t be a kind person, find one. We need more compassion, more love, more understanding, better parenting and less social media.”

The Karmelo Anthony murder trial continues in Collin County. The jury will eventually decide what justice looks like.

For Jeff and Hunter Metcalf, no verdict changes what happened on a Wednesday afternoon at a track meet — or what was lost the moment it did.

Source: Compiled from various sources