Two Killed in Portland While Trying to Stop Anti-Muslim Rant, Police Say -<br />By MATTHEW HAAG and JACEY FORTINMAY 27, 2017<br />The Oregon man accused of screaming anti-Muslim insults at two women,<br />and then fatally stabbing two men and wounding a third as they tried to intervene on Friday, had a history of making extremist remarks, according to the police and civil rights advocacy organizations.<br />In a statement on Saturday, the Portland police said the attacker, who was identified as Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, of North<br />Portland, Ore., had been booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges that included two counts of aggravated murder.<br />The episode began on Friday when the three men were attacked on a Portland commuter train as they tried to calm Mr. Christian, who, the police said, was ranting<br />and talking disparagingly about the women, one wearing a hijab.<br />One included a meme, which read, ‘If we’re removing statues because of the Civil War … we should be removing mosques because of 9/11.’”<br />It also says that Mr. Christian has promoted the notion of a whites-only area in the Northwest.<br />Mr. Christian has a history of making extremist statements on social media, said Zakir Khan, a member of the<br />Council on American-Islamic Relations who is working to set up a chapter of the organization in Oregon.<br />The police added that the two women, who were not injured, left the scene and were later identified and contacted by investigators.
