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. When three men on
the train intervened, police say, Christian attacked them,
killing two and wounding one.
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Many of the early settlers
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Currently, more than 70 per-
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“The idea that Portland
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Friday’s attack happened
on the first day of Ramadan
— the Muslim holy month,
marked by daily fasting
from dawn to sunset — and
is the latest in a series of
apparent hate crimes in the
region.
In March, an Iranian ref-
ugee living in the suburb of
Troutdale found his home
painted with racist graffiti
and death threats. In Decem-
ber, prosecutors charged a
man with a hate crime after
police said he chased down
and killed a black teenager
with his car in the suburb of
Gresham.
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