http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/us/portland-train-stabbing/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+U.S.%29
>Authorities investigating the deadly stabbings on a Portland commuter train Friday are looking into the suspect's background and trying to determine whether the man will be charged with federal hate crimes.
>As of Saturday, Jeremy Joseph Christian was being held on suspicion of state crimes, including aggravated murder, for which the death penalty is a possible sentence.
>The FBI, which has joined the Portland police-led investigation, said evidence still needs to be gathered.
>"It's too early to say whether last night's violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime," Renn Cannon, the special agent in charge of the Portland office of the FBI, told reporters Saturday.
>The killings -- in which two men were fatally stabbed and another was wounded -- came after Christian allegedly started yelling what "would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions" toward two women in a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light-rail train, Portland police Sgt. Pete Simpson said.
>Witnesses described the women, one of whom was wearing a hijab, as Muslim.
>As two men tried to calm him down, Christian, 35, 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.
>Best died at the scene, and Meche died at a hospital, police said.
>The third man, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, is still at a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening wounds, police added.
>Christian was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder, all felonies. He also was charged with misdemeanors: two counts of second-degree intimidation and a count of being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon, police said.
>His felony convictions -- for robbery and kidnapping -- came in 2002, state corrections department records show.
>He was being held Saturday at the Multnomah County jail without opportunity for bail. His arraignment was set for Tuesday in county court, police said.
>"We don't yet know what angle the investigation is going to take," Portland police Chief Mike Marshman said.
Confrontations last month
>Christian appeared to cause a stir at a rally for free speech in Portland last month, shouting at people and at one point blurting a racial epithet, videos from reporter Doug Brown of The Portland Mercury weekly newspaper show.
>Christian, wearing a cap and draped in a Revolutionary War-era flag, identifies himself in one of the videos from the rally at Portland's Montavilla Park on April 29.
>One video shows him arriving with a baseball bat, which he handed over to one of the police officers who approached him.
>The videos show him shouting at people, at one point saying the N-word, as police officers separated him from others.
>"I'm a nihilist," he says at one point. "This is my safe place."
>Saturday, police said detectives are looking at Christian's background, "including the information publicly available about the suspect's extremist ideology."
>The stabbings happened hours before the start of Ramadan, a monthlong Muslim holy period of prayer, fasting and charity. Portland, Oregon's most populous city with 640,000 residents, has about 50,000 Muslims, The Oregonian newspaper reported.
Police locate women
>Police have contacted the women, who left the scene, but Simpson wouldn't discuss whether they have been interviewed.
>He said detectives want to interview others who took off. It is unclear how many people were on the train, but officials said at the time of day it would have been crowded.
>The victims apparently didn't know Christian and were trying to protect the women, police said.
>Witnesses said one was stabbed in the neck, CNN affiliate KOIN reported.
'Hate is evil'
>Following the attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on President Donald Trump to denounce "rising bigotry" and acts of violence against Muslims.
>"President Trump must speak out personally against the rising tide of Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry and racism in our nation that he has provoked through his numerous statements, policies and appointments that have negatively impacted minority communities," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said.
>Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon took to Twitter to decry the stabbings.
>"Terrible tragedy on Portland's Max Train," he posted. "Champions of justice risked and lost their lives. Hate is evil."
>Gov. Kate Brown called for Oregonians to come together.
>"Let's not let hate and fear divide us. Instead let's take the example of the good Samaritans who sacrificed their lives for the safety of others and unite for a kinder, gentler Oregon," she said.
Gotta love the confirmation that racists are full on CCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIING IN MY SSSSSSSSSSSKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIINNNN.
>>144382
> Jeremy Joseph Christian
He’s a Bernie Sanders supporter;
https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/portland-suspect?utm_term=.gyzYDxnXw#.jhJ4GK29N
>>144394
>buzzfeed
bertbart tier
>>144395
I'd post a link to his Facebook page but 4chan won't let me.
Either way, I graciously accept your surrender.
>>144394
>Christian is a known white supremacist who attended a right-wing "March for Free Speech" on April 29 in Portland,The Portland Mercuryreported.
>He brought a baseball bat to the march to assault left-wing protestors with, which was later confiscated by police.
>Throughout the march, he reportedly shouted racial slurs and "Hail Vinland," gave the Nazi salute, and raved about being a nihilist.
>Christian posted frequently on Facebook, often expressing violently Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist views.
>This past April, on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, Christian wrote a Facebook post praising bomber Timothy McVeigh as a "true patriot."
>According to his posts, he was a passionate Bernie Sanders supporter who later supported, but did not vote for, President Trump. He frequently posted violent threats against Hillary Clinton and her supporters.
It's amazing how someone can support a candidate, but share only two or three of their political ideologies.
>>144419
>anti-Semitic views.
No, the guy is anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic.
Israel ≠ ALL Jews.
>>144394
maybe he's an intelligent white supremacist
Development:
>An Oregon man charged withmurdering two peoplewho had tried to intercede during the man’s anti-Muslim tirade spoke out at an arraignment on Tuesday, calling for “death to the enemies of America” while apparently defending his actions as a form of “patriotism.”
>The man, Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, of North Portland, Ore., is accused of fatally stabbing two men and injuring a third on Friday evening while inside a train car on Portland’s light-rail system.
>On Tuesday, Mr. Christian appeared in court here at the Multnomah County Justice Center and was arraigned on nine charges, including two counts of aggravated murder.
>As soon as he stepped into the courtroom, he launched into a rant.
>“Free speech or die, Portland,” he shouted. “You got no safe place. This is America, get out if you don’t like free speech.”
>Mr. Christian stood silently while the judge spoke. Then he consulted briefly with his court-appointed lawyer.
>Before leaving the courtroom, he shouted: “Death to the enemies of America. Leave this country if you hate our freedom.
>“You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism,” he said. “You hear me? Die.”
>On Monday, Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, a Democrat, reacted to the killings by saying that the city would not issue permits for what he called “alt-right” events scheduled for June 4 and June 10. He also called on the federal government to revoke any permits it had already issued. The term alt-right typically refers to a far-right, white nationalist movement.
>He also called on organizers of the events to cancel them.
>“Our city is in mourning, our community’s anger is very real and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate what is already a very difficult situation,” he said. “ There is never a place for bigotry or hated in our community, and especially not right now.”
>The mayor’s request comes amid a national debate about free speech that has created a deep schism mostly along partisan lines. The University of California, Berkeley tookheavy criticismfrom both liberals and conservatives when school officials decided to cancel a planned speech by right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter. And similarcontroversieshave arisen on other college campuses across the nation.
>After Mr. Christian’s brief arraignment on Tuesday, a group of people outside the courtroom could be heard shouting at him through the doors as he was led out. Members of the news media were prohibited from leaving the courtroom for the next several minutes until the situation de-escalated.
>The surviving victim of the attack, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, attended the arraignment.
>Ricky John Best, 53, was killed in the train car when he tried to intervene. Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, died at a Portland hospital.
>Mr. Fletcher, 21, was hospitalized for serious injuries over the weekend, but told local a local television station on Tuesday that he was healing.
>Civil-rights advocates have said Mr. Christian has a history of making extremist statements on social media.
>Friday’s episodeon the light rail unfolded around 5 p.m. when the police said Mr. Christian began ranting and talking disparagingly about two women; one was wearing a hijab.
>When the men tried to intervene, Mr. Christian pulled out a knife and slashed them, the police said. The attacker fled the train car but was soon arrested and booked into the Multnomah County Jail.
>The two women, who were not injured, left the scene and were later identified and contacted by investigators.
>In court documents released Tuesday, prosecutors said video feeds in the back of a patrol car captured Mr. Christian confessing that he had stabbed people in the neck.
>The documents also mentioned a fourth man who was the first to intervene and was not attacked.
>The district attorney will soon present the case to a grand jury, a spokesman for Metropolitan Public Defender Services in Portland said in an email on Tuesday.
https://nyti.ms/2rmg0Sm