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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2017 Authorities say stabbings suspect bragged in patrol car Outbursts at first court appearance By GILLIAN FLACCUS and STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press PORTLAND — A man charged with fatally stabbing two men and injuring a third who tried to shield young women from an anti-Mus- lim tirade appeared to brag about the attacks as he sat in the back of a police patrol car, saying “that’s what liberalism gets you,” according to court documents. The probable cause affi- davit filed Tuesday offers the most complete offi- cial account to date of the events that unfolded Fri- day on a light-rail car packed with commuters eager to get home for the Memorial Day weekend. Jeremy Joseph Christian, the man arrested in the stab- bings, shouted “You call it ter- rorism! I call it patriotism!” and “Death to the enemies of America!” as he made his first appearance in the case Tues- day. Christian, 35, did not enter a plea and has another court date June 7. Defense attorney Gregory Scholls did not return a call for comment after the hearing. A probable cause affida- vit describes a chaotic scene on the train from the moment Christian boarded. He was drinking sangria from a large, bladder-style bag and began shouting anti-Mus- lim slurs once he spotted the two young women. Both are black and one was wearing a Muslim head cov- ering, according to the affi- davit signed by Multnomah County Deputy District Attor- ney Ryan Lufkin. One passenger tried to intervene and was not hurt. The women moved away from the defendant. Surveillance video then shows Christian turn his attention to a man, Taliesin Namkai-Meche, who was seated. It wasn’t immediately clear if Namkai-Meche, 23, said something to Christian to draw his attention, but he stood up as Christian began shouting at him. A third passenger, Micah Fletcher, stood up as well and pushed Christian hard enough to make him stumble, the affi- davit said. Christian pulled a folded knife from his pocket and concealed it in his hand. As a shoving match ensued, the documents say Christian stabbed first Fletcher, then Namkai-Meche. A fourth passenger, Ricky Best, tried to come to their aid and was immediately stabbed as well. Best, 53, died on the train and Namkai-Meche died at the hospital a short time later. Fletcher survived and was released from the hospital Monday. He attended Chris- tian’s court hearing but did not speak with reporters. Autopsies showed both victims died from stab wounds to their necks and Best also had a fractured vertebra. The stab wound to Fletcher’s neck “missed being a fatal injury by millimeters,” court papers said, quoting his doctors. In the patrol car, Chris- tian can be heard on surveil- lance video saying he stabbed three people in the neck and that he can “die a happy man,” according to court papers. The Pacific Northwest has been a leader on many socially liberal fronts including rais- ing the minimum wage and legalizing recreational mari- juana but the region has a long and violent history of white supremacist and other racist activities. dark, hidden secret about rac- ism,” Gibson said. One of the most infamous attacks in Portland’s racial history occurred in Novem- ber 1988, when an Ethiopian immigrant named Mulugeta Seraw was beaten to death with a baseball bat by three white supremacists in front of his apartment. The White Aryan Resis- tance lost a multimillion dol- lar civil lawsuit in 1990 that crippled the organization, but the murder left an indelible mark on the city. As a memorial to Friday’s stabbing victims grew, one large chalk message stood out, streaked by rain under a gray sky: “Remember Mulug- eta Seraw.” canceled the celebration over fears of violence after pro- testers said the local Republi- can Party had plans to allow a “neo-Nazi hate group” to march with them. Local GOP leaders denied the charges. For years, Portland was the home base for Volksfront, a now-defunct white separatist organization founded in 1994, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. “I don’t have that feel- ing like it can’t happen here — the way people talk about Portland — because we’ve got racism. We’ve got all kinds of things,” said Murr Brewster, who came to see a memorial at the city’s transit center. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian Jeremy Joseph Christian shouts as he is arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland Tuesday. Au- thorities say Christian started verbally abusing two young women, including one wearing a hijab. 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PG 1,Common 053117_POR_ROP_S_8.722x17_DailyAstorian_P1_Common
