Three Women Taken Into Custody After Incident in Longview Parking Lot — What a Witness Overheard Before It Started

A quick trip to a bar turned into a bloodied, staple-filled hospital visit, and the phrases a witness says he heard moments before the violence are now at the center of a criminal case.

Three women in Longview, Texas, are facing assault charges after police say a young woman was jumped in a nightclub parking lot, and investigators believe the attack may be tied to the anger still surrounding one of the most talked-about criminal cases in the country this year.

What Happened in the Whiskey J's Parking Lot?

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WFAA, a security worker at Whiskey J's, located at 300 TX-63 Spur, noticed a large crowd forming in the parking lot in the early hours of June 21, 2026.

Moments later, he watched college student Sammie Lee walk through the same area before a group of women descended on her.

Lee had gone out for drinks with her best friend that night and said the two had no issues at all while inside the bar. It was only once they were walking back to their car that the situation turned violent, according to her own account posted on Facebook.

The security worker stepped in and pulled Lee away from the crowd, according to the affidavit. Court documents say she suffered injuries to the back of her head and her right eye during the attack.

On social media, Lee later posted her story, warning followers before sharing photos of her injuries. She wrote that she never spoke to or looked at the women who attacked her and had no idea who they were.

She described being "jumped by a group of random girls" and ending up with a black eye and staples in her head after bleeding from the back of her scalp and her face.

What Did Witnesses Say They Heard Before the Attack?

This is where the case takes a sharper turn. The security guard told investigators he heard someone in the crowd say, "The next white [expletive] that walks out, I'm going to hit her," just before Lee walked past, according to the affidavit.

A second witness, who said he had no connection to Lee or the group of women, told police he heard someone yell, "Any white girl can get it," followed by "Free Karmelo" right before the attack began.

Who Are the Women Charged, and How Did Police Connect Them to the Case?

Police identified the suspects as Ciarrianne Fuller of Longview, Dejae Brown of Pittsburg, and Alana Mumphrey of Longview, all in their 20s.

Each has been charged with assault causing bodily injury in connection with the parking lot attack, and Lee later told investigators she recognized all three as the women who assaulted her.

Investigators also said that the victim helped identify the suspects by pointing them to social media accounts connected to the attack.

Additionally, detectives found a post from Brown dated June 10, days before the assault, that read, "takin fades for Karmelo all day today, MOBILE [sic]," which police described as a phrase referring to deliberately seeking out a physical confrontation.

During the investigation, authorities even recovered a text message thread containing a video of the assault that had already been circulating online. In that thread, one of the suspects reportedly wrote, "We shouldn't have done that [expletive] bro."

Adding an unusual wrinkle to the case, the affidavit notes that an officer assisting with the investigation recognized two of the suspects as former classmates of the officer's own siblings.

What Is the Motivation Police Are Investigating?

The phrase "Free Karmelo," allegedly shouted before the attack, appears to reference Karmelo Anthony, who was recently sentenced to 35 years in prison for the 2025 stabbing death of Austin Metcalf at a Frisco track meet. This case has rocked the nation, with many taking Anthony's side despite the trial verdict.

During a June 24 news conference, Longview police spokesperson LaDarian Brown said the department was aware of social media posts discussing possible retaliation connected to the case.

He said those claims are being taken seriously, though there is currently no information suggesting a broader threat to public safety.

The spokesperson said the department is in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and urged the public not to spread unverified information online. He asked anyone with information related to the case to come forward.

"We cannot allow rumors to outrun facts, and we cannot allow fear to do more damage than the incident itself," he added. Police also said the investigation into the assault remains ongoing.

According to TMZ, the case has drawn attention well beyond Longview because of its apparent ties to the Anthony case, even though the attack itself took place hundreds of miles away and had no direct connection to the original crime.

But what happened that caused such a reaction? As previously reported, on June 9, 2026, a Collin County jury found Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder and sentenced him to over three decades in prison for the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.

The verdict closed a case that had gripped the country for more than a year — but for both families, nothing about that day felt like an ending. On one side of the courtroom, one mother hoped that her son would be accompanying her home.

On the other side, another mother told the boy who killed her son that whatever years he served, she had drawn the longer sentence. Two mothers were grieving, but Kayla Hayes' son was alive, and Meghan Metcalf's wasn't.

A Rainy Day That Turned Fatal

The events that led to the sentencing began on April 2, 2025, at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, during a high school track-and-field competition. A rain delay pushed competitors and spectators under whatever shelter they could find.

Karmelo Anthony, then 17 and a student at a rival school, sat beneath a tent that did not belong to him. The Memorial High School track team had claimed it, and the rules of a high school meet are not complicated: you sit under your own team's cover.

Twins Hunter and Austin Metcalf and others asked him repeatedly to leave. He refused. What happened in the next few seconds is what the jury would replay over and over.

The confrontation escalated until Karmelo told Austin, "Touch me and see what happens," keeping one hand hidden inside his backpack. When Austin pushed him, Karmelo pulled a knife and stabbed him once in the chest. Austin did not survive the injury.

The Trial

Jury selection began June 1, 2026. When the case went to the jury, jurors rejected Karmelo's claim of self-defense after hearing testimony from more than 20 witnesses — most of them students who were present that day.

The state agreed to allow jurors to consider "sudden passion," a legal standard that, if proven, would have reduced the possible sentence to between two and 20 years.

The defense argued Karmelo was overwhelmed by strong emotion and acted before he had time to calm down. The jury rejected that argument as well.

After roughly two hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury came back with a sentence of 35 years. Karmelo will be required to serve at least half of that sentence before he can be considered for parole.

Karmelo did not testify during the punishment phase. When he returned to the courtroom for sentencing, he could be seen crying with his head down.

Karmelo's Mother Pleads for Him

The defense called only one witness during the sentencing phase: Karmelo's mother, Kayla Hayes. Sobbing before the jury, she begged for mercy.

"Please have mercy on my son," she said. "He's my oldest. He'll always be my baby. I love him very much." She told the jury she knows her son — and that he is truly remorseful.

"I know my son, and he's very sorry for what he did." During cross-examination, prosecutors asked Kayla if she still loved her son. She said yes.

They then asked whether she understood that, regardless of the outcome, he would still be part of her life. She said yes to that, too. Kayla was facing a particular kind of empty room. Her son was alive.

Her son was sorry, she had told the jury. Her son was going somewhere she couldn't follow him for the next three and a half decades. That was the version of motherhood the verdict left her with.

Austin's Mother Speaks

When Meghan Metcalf rose to deliver her victim impact statement, the courtroom fell silent. She described a household now changed beyond recognition — mornings without her son, a bedroom he will never return to.

"Going into an empty room, empty bed, and once again remembering Austin is dead." She spoke about conversations that can no longer happen the way they used to.

"Now my conversations with him are one-sided, sitting at his grave. ... I have to accept that instead of walking beside me, he's walking above me."

Meghan remembered Austin as a "morning kid" and a "hugger" who "always had a way of bringing people together." She called him a peacemaker. "Austin's laughter would fill the room."

She also spoke about Austin's twin brother. Hunter walked out of that courtroom into a life he was supposed to share with someone who wasn't there to share it.

"Seeing my twin lose the most important person in his life crushes his mother," Meghan said. Of the home they all once shared, she added: "From the moment my boys were born, they were my world. Now my house is quiet."

Her words to Karmelo were measured — and devastating. "You should feel lucky, because I've been sentenced to a lifetime without my son." She made one thing clear before she finished. "My son was murdered. He didn't just die."

The Boy in the Photos

The photos circulating online tell a story the courtroom only partially captured. Early images show Karmelo as a child — birthday parties, school days, the unremarkable markers of a childhood that looked, from the outside, like any other.

Later photos show a teenager: confident, smiling. The kind of images any parent keeps on their phone. And then there is the booking photo taken at the Collin County jail on June 9, 2026.

Austin had his own album. It stopped on April 2, 2025. There won't be a graduation picture. There won't be a college portrait, or a wedding photo, or a baby held up to a camera — none of the frames Meghan had been expecting to add to her phone over the next decade.

The pictures she has of her son are the pictures she will always have of her son. Austin's album ends at 17. He would not get older. His mother was now talking to a grave. Karmelo would be in his mid-50s when he walked out. Austin would still be 17.

What Comes Next

Thirty-five years. Not the maximum. Not the minimum. A number that sat somewhere between Kayla's plea and Meghan's son's grave, and satisfied neither.

Thirty-five years is a long time. It is also, by Meghan's math, less than what she had been handed the moment her son stopped breathing in the bleachers of Kuykendall Stadium.

Karmelo Anthony was transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on June 10, 2026, after completing the agency's intake process.

Two mothers. Two kinds of grief. One courtroom and a sentence that closed a case without closing anything at all.