The family of Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teen who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old student athlete and is charged with murder, has been citing “escalating threats” of violence to help raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public. Yet a new report casts doubt on at least one threatening incident. 

According to police records obtained by the Daily Mail, Mr. Anthony’s father, Andrew, called 911 last week — while his son was still living at home — after two Jeeps with armed passengers were seen menacingly cruising past the house through his door bell camera. 

After the cops arrived on the scene, however, the father acknowledged to police that it had turned out to be teenagers in the Jeeps who had “play guns”  and that they were never pointed at the house. He also noted that both Black and white males were passengers in the cars, the Daily Mail reports. 

The officers later caught up with the teens, and described them as “High schoolers were driving through the area with water guns looking for their friend in the area to squirt with their water guns,” the incident report notes. The report adds that the teens “did not realize Karmelo Anthony’s house was right there at first” but they were “only trying to find their uninvolved friends house.” The subjects later “apologized for spooking the residents and stated there was no intent to make contact with them.” 

The report, which was deemed a non-emergency by police, comes as the accused teen successfully appealed to the courts to move to an undisclosed location from his home — where he was required to stay, while wearing an electronic monitoring device, according to his bail agreement — in light of an “alarming increase in death threats, continued harassment, and physical intimidation targeted at the family’s home.” Next Generation Action Network, which is assisting the Anthony family, said the family has been targeted by false food deliveries, intimidation, and disturbing mailings, including the obituary of the teen athlete who died in the stabbing, Austin Metcalf.

A week earlier, Mr. Anthony’s parents organized a press conference to dispel a “wave of falsehoods” about their accused son and detail the harassment and racist attacks they have endured in the weeks since his arrest. His mother, Kayla Hayes, claimed that her “13 year old daughter is afraid to sleep in her own bedroom because she’s fearful of what will happen to her” and that her husband’s mental health is “deteriorating day by day.”

The Anthony family’s impassioned pleas have drummed up sympathy from the public which has shelled out significant financial support. A GiveSendGo campaign set up by the family in part to cover the costs of their “safe relocation” due to “escalating threats to their safety and well-being” has amassed more than $514,000, and is still taking donations. 

Mr. Anthony was charged on April 2 with murder over Metcalf’s death, though he claims that he acted in self-defense and has pleaded not guilty. The deadly incident occurred when Metcalf, a student at Frisco Memorial High School, asked Mr. Anthony, a student of Centennial High School, to move from his seat under the Memorial High School tent during a track meet.

The racial dynamics of the incident — Mr. Anthony is Black and Metcalf was white — have pitted the families of the accused and the victim against each other and shot the case into the spotlight. 

Most recently, the judge presiding over the case — who faced criticism for reducing Mr. Anthony’s bail — was targeted in a “doxxing” hoax. Local law enforcement said that concerned citizens had reported seeing the home address of Collin County Judge Angela Tucker, who is Black, circulating online, according to Fox News. 

Doxxing, which is when someone’s personal information is shared on the internet without their consent, can be charged as a felony in Texas if it results in someone being harmed. The case is currently being investigated by the Collin County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. 

The Metcalf family has also been targeted by nefarious pranksters. Just this month, Frisco, Texas police officers have responded to at least three “swatting calls” at homes related to the grieving family. Swatting — a reference to the Special Weapons and Tactics team that the police will often assemble in response to serious crimes — is when a false report is made with malicious intent to draw significant police presence to the home of an unsuspecting individual or family. Swatting incidents have led to deaths due to misunderstandings between the swatting victims and the SWAT teams who arrive on the scene believing it’s a hostage situation.