Violent White supremacist is convicted of stabbing to death two men who tried to stop his racist tirade against two black women on rush hour train in Portland Oregon

Jurors found Jeremy Christian, 37, a known supremacist, guilty of the deaths of Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best 

He also was convicted of attempted murder of the sole survivor Micah Fletcher, as well as, other charges stemming from events surrounding the May 26, 2017, stabbings 

Micah Fletcher sat with his eyes closed as the verdicts were read while some members of the dead men’s families wept openly in court

Christian boarded the train on May 26, 2017, and began shouting racist, anti-Muslim and xenophobic slurs at the two young black women

He also was convicted of  assault and menacing for shouting slurs and throwing a bottle at a black woman on another light rail train the day before the deadly attack

The Oregon court found Jeremy Christian, 37, guilty of the deaths of Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best. He also was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing survivor Micah Fletcher

A white supremacist has been convicted of stabbing to death two men who tried to stop his racist tirade on two young black women on a commuter train during rush hour in Portland nearly three years ago.
Jeremy Joseph Christian, 37, was found guilty of the deaths of Taliesin Namakai-Meche and Ricky Best after he stabbed them in Oregon on May 26, 2017.
He also was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing survivor Micah Fletcher and assault and menacing for shouting slurs and throwing a bottle at a black woman on another light rail train the day before the deadly attack.
The verdict was announced to a packed courtroom, with victims and victims´ relatives filling one side. The defendant’s mother sat on the other side from victims.
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Verdict: Murder convict Jeremy Christian didn’t express any emotion as the guilty verdict for a double-homicide was read

Victims:  Taliesin Namakai-Meche (left) and Ricky Best (right) were killed while trying to stop Christian’s racist tirade against two young black women. The guilty verdict was announced to a packed courtroom, including victims and their relatives.

Michah Fletcher, the sole surviving victim of the stabbing spree, was in court for the verdicts 

Fletcher sat with his eyes closed as the verdicts were read. Some members of the dead men’s families cried.

Christian didn’t express any emotion.
A judge last year dismissed charges of aggravated murder – which carries a potential death sentence – because of a new Oregon law that narrows the definition of aggravated murder.
The stabbings’ racial undertones shook Portland, which prides itself on its liberal and progressive reputation but also grapples with a racist past that included limits on where black families could live and a neo-Nazi community so entrenched that the city was once nicknamed ‘Skinhead City.’ The deaths also came weeks after a black teen was run down and killed by a white supremacist in a Portland suburb convenience store parking lot – a case that also grabbed headlines.

White supremacist and double-homicide suspect Christian didn’t express any emotion as the verdict was read

Killer Jeremy Christian’s mother sat alone as she listened to the verdict against her son

Christian [photo], had recently attended – and spoken at – a rally hosted by a far-right group called Patriot Prayer, 

In the days after the stabbing, photos and video surfaced showing that Christian had recently attended – and spoken at – a rally hosted by a far-right group called Patriot Prayer, whose periodic political events were already causing tension in the city. He was captured on camera making the Nazi salute while wearing an American flag around his neck and holding a baseball bat.

 

On Facebook, his prolific posts slammed Portland as a place so politically correct that his right to free speech was constantly under assault. Those beliefs were front and center in the courtroom, too, when Christian told the judge on the first day of trial that he would wear his jail-issued blue uniform instead of a suit because to do otherwise would be like lying.
‘I don’t care how much time I spend in prison,’ he said. ‘All I care about is the public gets to see and hear what happened on the train.’
According to prosecutors, Christian boarded the train during the evening commute on May 26, 2017, and began shouting racist, anti-Muslim and xenophobic slurs at the two young black women. One was an immigrant from Somalia and wore a Muslim headscarf. Some witnesses said Christian in his outburst made a slicing motion across his neck and mentioned decapitating people.
As his tirade continued, Christian grabbed Namkai-Meche’s cellphone and threw it to the ground. Defense attorneys argued that Namkai-Meche had first approached Christian and was trying to film the tirade, which made him feel cornered.

Christian then took out a 4-inch (10-centimeter) folding knife and stabbed Fletcher and Namkai-Meche, prosecutors said. Authorities say he also stabbed a third passenger, Ricky Best, who was standing nearby. Namkai-Meche and Best died at the scene of stab wounds to the neck. Fletcher was seriously injured but survived.
Christian stabbed the men 11 times in 11 seconds. He would later tell a court-appointed psychologist during mental health evaluation that he felt like he was on ‘auto-pilot,’ according to court records.