Oregon court shown footage of two men stabbed to death on train for protecting Muslim teen from abuse
A chilling series of witness videos and surveillance footage capture the burst of violence and panicked screams after Jeremy Christian's hate-filled rants led to the murder of two people onboard a public train in Oregon in 2017.
Christian is charged with murdering 53-year-old Ricky Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Namkai-Meche and the attempted murder of Micah Fletcher, who was 21 at the time of the attack.
He also is charged with second-degree intimidation following his racist, unhinged rants against two teenage girls on the train, one of whom was wearing a hijab.
Opening statements in his trial began last week, and the crucial video evidence — rarely seen with such clarity from several sources in a murder case — has repeatedly been displayed throughout the hearings, along with testimony from the people who filmed the moment or who were captured on the footage.
The trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court is expected to run through February.
In the videos, Mr Christian can be seen seated on a public MAX train while yelling about Muslims, Jews, circumcision, and "free speech", telling passengers that "if you don't like it, get the f*** out" before he slaps a mobile phone from Mr Namkai-Meche and yells "Do something, b****!"
Mr Namkai-Meche and Mr Fletcher stand to face Mr Christian, who shoves them away. Mr Fletcher shoves back, sending Mr Christian into a row of seats against the side of the train, and tells him to get off the train.
As Mr Namkai-Meche reaches for his phone from the floor, Mr Christian can be seen reaching for a knife, unleashing a quick, deadly attack within 12 seconds, as horrified passengers try to escape or look on without realising that Mr Christian was holding a knife.
He stabs Mr Fletcher in the neck, then stabs Mr Namkai-Meche several times, sending him backward as he grabs his neck. Mr Best is stabbed in the neck and face before falling to the floor of the train.
Passengers rushed to the victims to apply pressure to their wounds, to no avail, as the floor of the train filled with blood.
Another man applied a blanket to Mr Fletcher's neck as he collapsed against a pole.
One man, who police identified as George Tschaggeny, can be seen grabbing Mr Best's backpack and removing his wedding ring from his finger.
As Mr Christian threatened people with his knife while running from the scene, several people gave chase, alerting police to his direction, according to witnesses in the trial. Alvin Hall testified that he found Mr Christian cleaning blood off his body a mile from the train. He said Mr Christian threatened him, saying "I'm going to ... do the same thing to you that I did to those guys" before police arrived and arrested him.
Mr Christian's defence attorney doesn't dispute that Mr Christian stabbed the victims, but he said he acted in self-defence after Mr Fletcher had shoved him.
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