It’s self defense if his life was imminent and inescapable danger.
Was he being attacked while on the track?
Rain delay. He was under a tent ... of the opposing team. The victim told him to move, but he refused and said “put your hands on me and find out” or something to that effect. The scuffle lasted all of 30 seconds.
IMO, the guy went there looking for revenge for a scuffle they had the week before. Knew where to find him and dared him to do something. He immediately asked the police if it was self defense since the victim did indeed put his hands on him.
The arrest report makes it pretty clear that this should have never been more than a shoving match, and that Karmelo Anthony was never in reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury, and that in consequence he was certainly not priveleged to use deadly force in self defense.
If you read through all of the witness statements contained in the report, it gets worse for Karmelo, who witnesses say dared Metcalf at least twice "Push me and see what happens." and "Punch and see what happens.", which sounds a lot like provocation with intent to me, and makes this sound like straight-up murder.
He's going to have to argue that the disparity of numbers (Metcalf was with his twin brother at the time) put him in reasonable fear of his life, but given the other circumstances (it was a crowded tent, there were adults present, including school employees all of whom would have intervened to prevent things from going too far), he's probably going to be spending a very large percentage of his life in prison.
The reacton from some of the "community" is disturbing though. According to their logic, the undisputed fact that Metcalf "shoved" Anthony is in itself justification for deadly force "the white boy had it coming". Of course, if the tables were turned they would be singing a different song, but that's the narrative that some on the left are trying to run with.
Attacked by who?