Portland Train Stabbings: What Happened? 2 Killed, 1 injured by stabbing: White Right Wing Terrorist Kills innocents on MAX train.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/05/portland_max_attack_what_you_n.html

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE

Memorial Day weekend started with a horrific attack on a MAX light rail train at rush hour Friday night. Here is what you need to know about the latest developments:

Police identified the victims who died as two local men. Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche died and a third, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, was injured. Authorities have said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Police Chief Mike Marshman said the three men were stabbed in the neck.

Best died at the scene, and Namkai-Meche died at a hospital. Family and friends say the fact they both intervened was in keeping with their personalities and values.

MAX stabbing victim was Portland employee, Army veteran

Rick Best, 53, worked as a technician for the city Bureau of Development Services.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche: 'Just the best person'

The 23-year-old Reed College grad had a way of putting people at ease.

Namkai-Meche, a 23-year-old Reed College graduate from Ashland, was remembered as the sort of person who would stand up for what he believed was right, even if it meant putting himself at risk.

Best, 53, had retired from the Army in 2012 after 23 years in the military. He lived in Happy Valley and had worked for the city for the past few years. He had three teenage sons and a 12-year-old daughter.

The accused was a convicted robber who spewed hatred. Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, remained in jail on accusations of aggravated murder and attempted murder, as well as lesser crimes.

He had filled his Facebook posts with threats to kill people and Nazi sympathies. He came to wider attention in Portland during a march in April. The march occurred after a larger planned parade along 82nd Avenue was canceled over fear of disruptions.

Portland suspect in 2 slayings known for hate speech

Suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian has a Facebook page that calls for a homeland for whites and includes anti-Semitic statements praising Nazis.

A video of the event shows Christian, wrapped in a Revolutionary War-era American flag, casting Nazi salutes while shouting, "Die Muslims!"

He described himself as a sociopath. His only criminal record appears to stem from a hapless 2002 robbery. When he was 20, he stole cash and cigarettes from a North Portland market. The owner said the robber walked in wearing a black ski mask, with openings cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth, but he knew all his customers and immediately recognized Christian. During the ensuing police chase, Christian was shot in the face.

He will be arraigned on the charges from Friday's attacks when courts reopen after the Memorial Day holiday.

The girls spoke to police but otherwise stayed out of the spotlight. The girls, Destinee Hudson, 16, and her friend, 17, gave statements to a police detective shortly after the attack. The girls had boarded MAX downtown and headed east. The man police identified later as Christian got on at the Lloyd Center stop and launched into a tirade when he saw the girls.

Destinee is black. Her friend, not publicly identified, is Muslim and wore a traditional head covering known as a hijab.

"He was saying that Muslims should die," said Dyjuana Hudson, Destinee's mother.

Man saw teenagers, one with hijab, and launched into racial tirade

Other train passengers chased the bloody suspect into the neighborhood and alerted police. "He was saying that Muslims should die," said Dyjuana Hudson, a mother of one of the targeted girls. "That they've been killing Christians for years."

The girls distanced themselves from the man but he pressed on, Hudson said.

The three bystanders intervened and were attacked, police said. Destinee and her friend sprinted out of the train as soon as the doors opened at the Hollywood transit station at Northeast 42nd Avenue.

Police did not release details of exactly what happened on the train. Marshman said Saturday at a briefing that the men were stabbed in the neck. The special agent in charge of the Portland FBI office said it was too soon to label the incident as a federal crime. "It's too early to say whether last night's violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime," said Loren Cannon at a briefing by city and other officials.

He said his office would continue to work with the Portland Police Bureau, which was the lead investigating agency.

No video from on board the train or on the platforms has been released. TriMet said it was increasing security. 

Portland police have asked anyone who has information about the stabbing to call a non-emergency line, 503-823-3333. 

Reaction from city, state and faith leaders was swift. The rampage at the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, brought an immediate outcry from religious and civic leaders in Portland and across the country.

Leaders from the governor and mayor to members of Congress and faith organizations decried the violence and praised the good Samaritans who intervened.

Several fundraisers to help the victims also were launched.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive