A man fatally stabbed two people and wounded a third on a commuter train in Oregon’s largest city Friday as people confronted him for “yelling a gamut of anti-Muslim and anti-everything slurs,” a Portland police spokesman said.
Christian may have directed slurs at two young women whom witnesses described as Muslim, one of whom was wearing a hijab.
As two men tried to calm him down, Christian stabbed them and one other man, police said. The two men who died were identified Saturday as Ricky John Best , 53, of Happy Valley, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, of Portland.
Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, was on a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light-rail train in Portland late Friday afternoon when he started yelling what “would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions,” police said in news release.
Christian is a known right wing extremist and white supremacist. On April 29, Christian showed up to the right-wing “March for Free Speech” on 82nd Avenue in Montavilla with a baseball bat in an attempt to assault left-wing protesters. The bat was quickly confiscated by Portland police officers. He ranted how he was a nihilist. He’d soon yelled racial slurs (“fuck all you n*****s”) and gave the Nazi salute throughout the day. He yelled “Hail Vinland” throughout the day.