Police: Suspect in Portland stabbings ranted about Muslims

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A man who police say fatally stabbed two people who tried to stop him from yelling anti-Islamic slurs on a Portland light-rail train spent time in prison for robbery and kidnapping charges years ago, according to court records and a defense attorney.

Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, was being held Saturday in the Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

He will make a first court appearance Monday. A phone at his home in Portland rang unanswered early Saturday.

Two people died Friday night and another was hurt in the stabbing after police said Christian yelled racial slurs at two young women, one of whom was wearing a Muslim head covering. The assailant was ranting on many topics, using "hate speech or biased language," according to a statement from police.

Friday was the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims, and the attack prompted soul-searching in Portland, a city that prides itself on its tolerance and liberal views. A memorial of flowers and signs quickly grew at the scene by a transit station.

"There is too much hatred in our world right now, and far too much violence. Too much of it has arrived here in Portland," Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a Facebook post.

Wheeler was on an inaugural direct flight from Portland to London when the attack occurred. He said he boarded the first flight back.

Dyjuana Hudson, a mother of one of the girls, told The Oregonian the man began a racial tirade as soon as he spotted the girls. Her daughter is African-American and was with a friend who was wearing a hijab, she said.

"He was saying that Muslims should die," Hudson said. "That they've been killing Christians for years."

The attack happened on a MAX train as it headed east. A train remained stopped on the tracks at a transit center that was closed while police investigated.

Autopsies on the victims were being done Saturday. Their names have not been made public.

Police say the victims were trying to stop Christian from confronting the girls.

"In the midst of his ranting and raving, some people approached him and appeared to try to intervene with his behavior and some of the people that he was yelling at," police Sgt. Pete Simpson told the Portland newspaper. "They were attacked viciously."

Christian has had several encounters with the law.

In 2002, Christian, then 20, was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping after he rode to a convenience store on his bike and held up employees there with a gun, according to court records and his court-appointed defense attorney at the time, Matthew Kaplan.

When police caught up with him, Christian aimed the gun at himself in a suicide attempt before he was shot and injured by police, Kaplan said.

Christian was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after striking a plea deal that eliminated coercion and weapons charges.

Kaplan said he remembers the case vividly because Christian was so young, so earnest and never had been in trouble before. At the time, the attorney suspected the onset of mental illness to explain his actions and worried about how he would deal with a long prison sentence.

"It was so random, the event in his life. It made no sense that he did this at his age. He had no background like this, no history of violence, and then he goes and gets a gun and robs a store," Kaplan told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Christian had another brush with the law in 2010, when he was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft. Those charges were dismissed, according to court records, which do not explain why.