Men killed trying to stop anti-Muslim rants identified
Passenger shouted hate speech at women before stabbing interveners
The Washington Post
Two men were stabbed to death and one injured Friday on a light-rail train in Portland, Ore., after they tried to intervene when another passenger began “ranting and raving” and shouting antiMuslim hate speech at two youngwomen, police said.
Police identified the suspect as 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian, of north Portland. Mr. Christian is being held without bail on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of intimidation in the second degree and onecount of possession of a restrictedweapon as a felon.
The two slain victims were identified by Portland police as53-year-old Ricky John Best and23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche. A third victim, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, is being treated for non-life-threateninginjuries, police said.
According to witnesses, a white male passenger riding an eastbound MAX train early Friday afternoon began yelling what “would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions,” police said. Some of the slurs were directed at two female passengers, one of whom was wearinga hijab, police said.
“This suspect was on the train and he was yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things, including what we characterized at hate speech or biased language,” Portland police spokesman PeteSimpson said.
At least two men tried to calm the ranting passenger down, but “they were attacked viciously by the suspect” when they did, Mr. Simpson said. Mr. Namkai Meche, of southeast Portland, died at a local hospital, while Mr. Best, a resident of Happy Valley, Ore., was pronounced deadat the scene.
Mr. Simpson noted then that several passengers, includingthe two young women thought to be the target of the man’s anti-Muslim slurs, had left the train after the stabbings. Mr. Simpson said it did not appear that the suspect or the victims had any relationshipwith one another.
“We don’t know if [the suspect] has mental-health issues or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or all of the above,” Mr. Simpson said. “With this incident, we’re obviously in early stages of the investigation.”
The attacks occurred just as Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, was set to commence atsunset Friday. Mr. Simpson said Portland police had already reached out to Muslim organizations, mosques and imams in the community to talk about extra patrols during Ramadan and that those extrapatrols would continue.
“Our thoughts are with the Muslim community,” Mr. Simpsonsaid.
On Saturday, people mournedthe stabbing victims and praised them as heroes for their actions. Mr. Namkai Meche’s sister, Vajra AlayaMaitreya, emailed a statement to The Washington Post on behalf of their family, sayingher brother lived “a joyous and full life” with an enthusiasmthat was infectious.
“We lost him in a senseless act that brought close to home the insidious rift of prejudice and intolerance that is too familiar, too common. He was resolute in his conduct (and) respect of all people,” she wrote. “In his final act of bravery,he held true to what he believedis the way forward.”
The Portland Mercury newspaper reported that Mr. Christianwas a “known rightwing extremist and white supremacist” who had attempted to assault protesters at local demonstrations in the past. Video from April 29, shot by Mercury reporter Doug Brown, showed Mr. Christian arriving at a “March for Free Speech” draped in an American flag and carrying a baseball bat. While there, Mr. Christian yelled to the crowd that he was a “nihilist,” shouted the n-word at people and gave Nazi salutes, Mr. Brownreported.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Facebook page they said belonged to Mr. Christian showed he heldracist, white supremacist and extremist beliefs. On that profile, the Facebook user said he supported creating a “White homeland” in the Pacific Northwest and declared on April 9 that he had “just Challenged Ben Ferencz (Last Living Nuremberg Persecutor) to a Debate in the Hague with Putin as our judge. I will defend the Nazis and he will defendthe AshkeNAZIs.”