NEW YORK // The two girls – one African-American and one Muslim – cowered in their train seats as Jeremy Joseph Christian, who cut an intimidating figure standing at more than six feet and weighing 106 kilos, launched into his rant.
The girls, one of whom was wearing a headscarf, had attracted Christian's attention as they boarded the commuter train in the US city of Portland. He soon launched an Islamophobic tirade at them, "saying all Muslims should die", according to the mother of one the girls, who was quoted by The Oregonian newspaper.
Three passengers aboard the train tried to come to the girls’ aid. “You can’t get at them like that – they’re little girls,” said one man.
But the intervention cost two of the passengers their lives.
Christian, 35, is being held on suspicion of fatally stabbing Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23.
A third man, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, remains in hospital with serious but non-life-threatening wounds after the attack on Friday evening.
Police said they were investigating whether Christian should face hate crime charges, while friends, family and community leaders paid tribute to the two dead men.
Meche’s mother, Asha Deliverance from Ashland, a city about 480 kilometres south of Portland, confirmed on Facebook that her son had been killed.
“My dear baby boy passed on yesterday while protecting two young Muslim girls from a racist man on the train in Portland,” she wrote. “He was a hero and will remain a hero on the other side of the veil. Shining bright star I love you forever.”
Meche graduated last year from Reed College in Portland with a degree in economics.
Best was a father of four and an army veteran with 23 years’ service. Colleagues at the Portland government’s bureau of development services said it would have been just like him to intervene.
"He was always the first person you would go to for help," Kareen Perkins, his supervisor, told The Oregonian. "I've talked to most of his co-workers today, and several of them said it's just like Rick to step in and help somebody out."
A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the three victims collected more than US$220,000 (Dh808,396) in its first 24 hours as Portland, the largest city in the eastern state of Oregon and famous as a bastion of liberal values, tried to understand the horrific attack.
“That people feel emboldened to come out and show their racism and bigotry in that way is horrifying to me. It’s a gut check for everywhere – and absolutely for Portland,” said Christopher Douglas, who stopped at a makeshift memorial of flowers and cards. “Portland ... floats in a little bit of a bubble of its own liberal comfort and I think the reality is sinking in.”
Ted Wheeler, the city’s mayor, condemned the charged political environment surrounding immigration in the United States.
“Violent words can lead to violent acts,” he said. “All elected leaders in America ... must work deliberately to change our political dialogue.”
He added that the two men died as heroes.
“Their actions were brave and selfless and should serve as an example, an inspiration to us all,” he said.
Christian is due to appear in court on Tuesday.
Local news organisations reported that he had a history of far-right activity.
The Portland Mercury, one of the city's alternative weekly newspapers, posted video of Christian appearing at a free-speech march earlier this year. It showed him giving a Nazi salute and police confiscating a baseball bat.
“I’m a nihilist! This is my safe place,” he shouted.
His Facebook page was filled with political ramblings in which he expressed sympathy for Nazis and wrote last month “May all the Gods Bless Timothy McVeigh, a TRUE PATRIOT!!!”, in reference to the man who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Associated Press
