Black teenager praises ‘heroes’ stabbed to death for defending her from racist abuse

A BLACK American teenager has given her tearful thanks to two strangers who were killed after they stepped in to defend her from racist abuse.

Destinee Mangum, 16, was travelling with a hijab-wearing friend on a tram in Portland, Oregon, last Friday when she was accosted by Jeremy Christian.

Christian, a known white supremacist with a violent criminal history, began hurling racist abuse at the girls. Three men intervened to protect them, and Christian is alleged to have stabbed two of them to death.

“He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and he told us we shouldn’t be here, to get out of his country,” said Miss Mangum, holding her mother’s hand as she spoke to a local television station. “He was just telling us that we basically weren’t anything and that we should just kill ourselves.”

A stranger intervened, telling Christian that he “can’t disrespect these young ladies like that”. Miss Mangum recalled: “Me and my friend were going to get off the train and then we turned around while they were fighting and he just started stabbing people.”

Ricky Best, a 53-year-old army veteran who worked as a technician for the city of Portland, died at the scene.

Taliesin Meche, a 23-year-old economics graduate, was pronounced dead at hospital. A third man, Micah Fletcher, 21, remains in hospital with serious injuries.

Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, described the two dead men as heroes.

President Donald Trump tweeted: “The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are with them.” He had been criticised for failing to respond earlier.

Christian, 35, will appear in court today charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder, for which he could face the death penalty. Officers are going through his extensive social media history in which he had praised the Oklahoma bomber and spoken of wanting to murder Jews.

Miss Mangum said that she had been left distraught by Friday’s attack.

“I just want to say thank you to the people who put their life on the line for me,” she said. “Because they didn’t even know me and they lost their lives because of me and my friend and the way we look. It’s haunting me.”