Washington: Two men were stabbed to death and one injured on Friday US time on a light-rail train in Portland, Oregon, after they tried to intervene when another passenger began "ranting and raving" and shouting anti-Muslim hate speech at two young women, police said.
Police identified the suspect 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.
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Portland Mayor to Muslims: 'Portland stands by you'
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler denounces the fatal stabbings of two men by a suspect accused of going on an anti-Muslim rant, saying the 'current political climate' allows too much room for 'bigotry.'
The two slain victims were identified by Portland police as 53-year-old Ricky John Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche.
These Are The Victims Of The Portland Train Stabbing Attack https://t.co/HC2d7xcJkh via @juliareinstein we choose ❤️.... #Taliesin
— t (@rockidaisy8) May 27, 2017
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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 metropolitan train early on Friday afternoon 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 on Friday evening.
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 south-east 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 Friday. "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.
"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 Islamic holy month, was set to commence at sunset on Friday. 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 Friday. "As something like this happens, this only instils fear in that community."
This courageous human being lost his life in #Portland standing against racist, white supremacist terrorism. We will remember you, Taliesin. pic.twitter.com/EBc5tzDqD9
— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) May 27, 2017
On Saturday, people mourned the stabbing victims and praised them as heroes for their actions. Namkai Meche's sister, Vajra Alaya-Maitreya, emailed a statement to The Washington Post on behalf of their family, saying her brother lived "a joyous and full life" with an enthusiasm that 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 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.
Suspect in brutal Portland hate crime murders is known white supremacist. I photo'd him giving Nazi salute in April https://t.co/oZJvre8oL5 pic.twitter.com/wHuylG5C2f
— doug brown (@dougbrown8) May 27, 2017
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 Center, 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 North-west and posted anti-Semitic material.
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.
"May all the Gods Bless Timothy McVeigh a TRUE PATRIOT!!!" he wrote. McVeigh was sentenced to death for the 1995 bombing, which killed 168 and was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil before September 11, 2001.
Portland police confirmed to the Post that they believed the Facebook page belonged to Christian.
Christian's mother, Mary Christian, told HuffPost that she couldn't imagine why her son would be involved in such an incident, "unless he was on drugs or something".
"He's been in prison. He's always been spouting anti-establishment stuff," Mary Christian told the news site on Saturday. "But he's a nice person. I just can't imagine."
Washington Post