A heart-shaped wreath covered with positive messages hangs on a traffic light pole at a memorial for two bystanders who were stabbed to death. Photo / AP
A heart-shaped wreath covered with positive messages hangs on a traffic light pole at a memorial for two bystanders who were stabbed to death. Photo / AP
Two men who were stabbed to death and one injured after trying to help two women on a light-rail train in Portland, Oregon, have been identified.
They tried to intervene when another passenger began "ranting and raving" and shouting anti-Muslim hate speech at the two young women.
Police identified thesuspect as 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian, of north Portland. 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 one count of possession of a restricted weapon as a felon.
The two slain victims were identified by Portland police as 53-year-old Ricky John Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche.
A third victim, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
According to witnesses, a white male passenger riding an eastbound MAX train began yelling what "would best be characterised 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 wearing a hijab, according to police.
"This suspect was on the train and he was yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things, including what we characterised at hate speech or biased language," Portland police spokesman Pete Simpson said.
At least two men tried to calm the ranting passenger down, but "they were attacked viciously by the suspect" when they did, Simpson said.
Namkai Meche, of southeast Portland, died at a local hospital, while Best, a resident of Happy Valley, Oregon, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The stabbing attack shocked the city.
"It's horrific. There's no other word to describe what happened today," Simpson said. "It is simply horrible."
Simpson noted then that several passengers, including the two young women thought to be the target of the man's anti-Muslim slurs, had left the train after the stabbings. Simpson said that it did not appear that the suspect or the victims had any relationship with one another.
Jeremy Joseph Christian. Photo / AP
"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," 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. Simpson said that Portland police had already reached out to Muslim organisations, mosques and imams in the community to talk about extra patrols during Ramadan - and that those extra patrols would continue.
"Our thoughts are with the Muslim community," Simpson said. "As something like this happens, this only instills fear in that community."
Today people mourned the stabbing victims and praised them as heroes for their actions. Namkai Meche's sister, Vajra Alaya-Maitreya, emailed a statement on behalf of their family, saying her brother lived "a joyous and full life" with an enthusiasm that was infectious.
Ricky John Best. Photo / Twitter
"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 believed is the way forward."
The Portland Mercury newspaper reported that Christian was a "known right wing 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 Christian arriving at a "March for Free Speech" draped in an American flag and carrying a baseball bat. While there, Christian yelled to the crowd that he was a "nihilist," shouted the n-word at people and gave Nazi salutes, Brown reported.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a Facebook page they said belonged to Christian showed he held racist, 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 defend the AshkeNAZIs."
On April 19, the anniversary of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the user praised bomber Timothy McVeigh in another status update.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche - he will always be remembered as A HERO. One of the victims of #Portland stabbing. pic.twitter.com/AB3OQUPaHE
