Surviving victim of Portland train attack got medical aid from fourth man, an unidentified veteran

PORTLAND, Ore. — The lone survivor of Friday’s vicious attack on a crowded MAX train may owe his life in part to another Good Samaritan who rushed to the man’s side to render critical medical aid.

Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, is continuing to recover from knife wounds to his neck.

A Portland man with known extremist views verbally assaulted a teenage girl wearing a hijab and her friend on the train, then turned his rage on Fletcher and two others.

Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, cut all three men in the neck.

Rick Best, 53, a U.S. Army veteran, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, a recent Reed College graduate, died from their injuries.

Fletcher, an aspiring poet, is slowly improving in an area hospital, said his girlfriend, Miranda Helm.

“He’s getting a little bit stronger,” she said Sunday. “He’s getting good rest. He’s finally able to eat now.”

Helm said Fletcher wants to meet the man he credits with helping to save him.

The unidentified man rushed to Fletcher’s side and used a cloth to apply pressure to his wound. He also found Fletcher’s cellphone and looked through the contacts to find someone to call. He saw a contact for “mom,” said Helm.

The man told Fletcher’s mother that he was a veteran and was familiar with first aid.

“He was trying to reassure her that he was capable and confident” in what he was doing, Helm said.

The man didn’t describe the true nature of Fletcher’s injuries, saving Fletcher’s mother from worry as she raced to the hospital. It was a gesture of compassion that Fletcher’s family appreciated, Helm said.

He said her son had been “stabbed in the arm so we would not panic as much,” Helm said.

She said by the time Fletcher’s family arrived at the hospital, the medical staff said he would survive his injuries.

“We were able to go into the ER much more composed than we would have otherwise,” she said.

Helm said the mother of one of the girls that Fletcher, Best and Namkai-Meche were trying to protect also reached out to Fletcher.

Fletcher’s friends on Saturday posted new photos of the 21-year-old, including one of him flashing a “thumbs up” from his hospital bed on a “Tri Met Hero Recovery” GoFundMe site. A second photo showed the large wound to the left side of his neck, stretching from just below his chin up to under his left ear. The site is to raise money to cover his hospital and recovery costs.

“Micah is recovering, but it’s going to be a lengthy process,” a message with the posted photos said. “He is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support he’s received.”

Meanwhile, new details surfaced Sunday about Christian.

He allegedly started a fight with a woman at a MAX station the day before the deadly altercation, officials said. KGW reported that Christian threw a plastic bottle at a black woman, who in turn sprayed him with mace.

Portland police were aware of the altercation and seeking video of the incident.

More details also emerged Sunday about Christian’s criminal history. During an 8year prison stint for robbery, Christian racked up a lengthy disciplinary record, according to Oregon Department of Corrections officials. Those violations included assault and disobedience. He moved around in the state’s prison system, serving time at four institutions in all.

Upon his release, he served his post-prison supervision with Multnomah County. His probation ended in January 2014, state officials said Sunday.

Like other acquaintances and friends of Christian, Lindsey Self says she noticed a drastic change in his behavior after he served nearly eight years in prison.

“I am still in shock from this news,” Self wrote in a Facebook message. “Jeremy was a friend of mine since we were 17. We worked together at Pietro’s Pizza, our first job out of high school. He was a good guy — strange at times, but funny and quirky.”

Self, a registered nurse, said she’d had little or no contact with Christian the past five years.

“I’ve seen his rants on Facebook,” she wrote. “That seemed odd for him. Something in him changed over the recent years. He didn’t do drugs. He was mentally ill. He needed help and I feel so sad that we all lost touch and didn’t reach out to him. He was a good guy at one point.

“All I have to say is I hope this brings attention to the need for mental health facilities and more outreach. Jeremy was another victim of the criminal justice system: let out with no resources, no guidance, a child trapped in a man’s body. I’m heart-broken.”