2 fatally stabbed on Oregon train after trying to stop homosexual's anti-Muslim rants, police say

[Dikstre]

Two men were stabbed to death Friday on a light-rail train in
Portland, Ore., after they tried to intervene when another
passenger began “ranting and raving” and shouting anti-Muslim
hate speech at two young women, 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 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
characterized at hate speech or biased language,” Portland
police spokesman Pete Simpson said at a news conference 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.

“It appears preliminarily that the victims — at least a couple
of them — were trying to intervene in his behavior, deescalate
him and protect some other people on the train when [the
suspect] viciously attacked them,” Simpson said.

About 4:30 p.m. Friday, police responded to calls of a
disturbance at the Hollywood Transit Station in east Portland.
There, they found three stabbing victims, all adult men. Despite
attempted lifesaving measures, one died at the scene, and
another was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.

The third victim is being treated for non-life-threatening
injuries and is expected to survive, Simpson said Friday.

Based on witnesses’ statements, officers on Friday were able to
locate and arrest the suspect, who had fled the train on foot.

Police identified the suspect early Saturday morning 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 deceased victims’ identities have not yet been released,
pending an autopsy by the Oregon State Medical Examiner in
Portland late Saturday morning, police said.

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.”

The attack shut down the Hollywood Transit Station and Portland
MAX trains in both directions for several hours Friday evening.

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. He urged any
witnesses to come forward to give statements to police. Simpson
added 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 Muslim holy month, was
set to commence at sunset Friday. Simpson said that 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 extra patrols would continue.

“Our thoughts are with the Muslim community,” Simpson said
Friday. “As something like this happens, this only instills fear
in that community.”

The attack prompted a slew of outraged responses Friday from
Oregon residents and lawmakers, as well as nationally.

Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly called the incident
“especially sad and disturbing” in a statement on behalf of
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was traveling Friday night, and
the City Council, according to KGW News.

“People lost their lives or were injured because they stood up
to hate,” Eudaly said in the statement. “We need to offer our
heartfelt support to the women and others who were targeted. The
courage of the people who stood up for them is a reminder that
we as a city need to stand together to denounce the hate.”

Multnomah County officials announced that its mental-health call
center would be available 24 hours a day for those affected by
the MAX train stabbing.

“We are very sad. Ramadan started just a couple hours ago,”
Imtiaz Khan, president of the Islamic Center of Portland, told
Oregon Public Broadcasting on Friday night. “We are very sorry
for the two men who tried to do the right thing. … Of course
people from the Muslim community are concerned. And,
unfortunately, the easy targets are women because of the
headscarf.”

The Portland Mercury, a local 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 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 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.

“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 Sept. 11, 2001.

On April 28, the same Facebook user shared a meme that showed a
picture of Confederate statues being removed.

“If we’re removing statues because of the Civil War, We should
be removing mosques because of 9/11,” the meme stated.

That same day, the user posted a lengthy Facebook status “too
(sic) all my Portland Peeps” encouraging them to attend a free
speech rally in Portland:

I will be there Demasking anyone with a mask. I will attend in
Lizard King Regalia as a Political Nihilist to Provoke both
Sides and attempt to engage anyone in a true Philosophy and
Political Discussion. This Is what I have done for the last 6
years in front of Powell’s Books Downtown. I take the Role of
International Patriot and Revolutionary VERY SERIOUS BUT YOU ALL
KNOW I AM THE MOST LAID BACK DUDE IN THE WORLD- Until you cross
that line then nothing will stop our COME TO JESUS TALK FRIEND
OR FOE.

By Saturday morning, the page was flooded with furious comments
from people who had linked him with the Portland train stabbing
suspect. An SPLC spokeswoman told The Washington Post on
Saturday that the group had confirmed this was Christian’s
Facebook page by corroborating his mugshot likeness with
pictures the Facebook user had shared, as well as with other
reporting. Portland police did not respond to inquires about the
authenticity of the account.

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