Cellphone and TriMet surveillance videos played during the opening days of the double murder trial of Jeremy Christian offer the public a view for the first time of precisely what went down on the packed MAX train on the afternoon of May 26, 2017.
The clarity of the footage – taken by multiple cameras from different angles, some of it including sound – is rare in a murder case.
The videos show a chilling scene of anger, injury and death in the moments before and after Christian stabbed three passengers, killing two.
They expose the ugliness of the carnage, but they also reveal the goodness of many people who rushed to help.
A former Marine testified that he stepped between Christian and two teenage girls, one who was wearing a hijab, to shield them from Christian’s disturbing rants about Muslims, beheadings and nationalism.
Jeremy Christian trial, January 31, 2020 Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian/OregonLive/Pool
Train passengers can be seen trying to stem the bleeding by placing their hands on the necks of the wounded men.
Strangers chased after Christian as he ran a mile from the train, telling Portland police where he was heading.
Among the dark moments is a figure seen grabbing the backpack of Ricky Best, one of the victims, as he lay bleeding on the train car’s floor. The man then strides up to Best and moves to strip the wedding ring off Best’s finger.
The trial began with opening statements last Tuesday and prominently featured the videos throughout the week as more than a dozen people in the frames and those who took them explain what they saw and did.
The videos are expected to continue to play a central role in both the prosecution’s case and the defense arguments as the trial continues in Multnomah County Circuit Court, likely until the end of February.
WHAT CHRISTIAN SAID
Christian is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Best, 53, and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, 23, and with the attempted first-degree murder of Micah Fletcher, then 21.
He also is charged with second-degree intimidation, a hate crime, for allegedly targeting the two girls on the train because of their national origin or race. One is African American and the other immigrated from Somalia.
Defense attorneys are pointing to the videos to claim Christian’s stabbing spree was a legally justified act of self-defense.
Prosecutors say Christian carried out a calculated plan to kill anyone who challenged him for loudly broadcasting his racist and xenophobic beliefs.
The videos captured Christian yelling that circumcision should be banned -- “My body my choice!” He also can be heard exclaiming “(Expletive) Saudi Arabia!” “Go home, we need American here!”
Witnesses said Christian also talked about Muslims, Christians and Jews dying, beheadings and his right to shout about it all on the MAX train because of free speech.
It was about 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, a warm and sunny start to the Memorial Day weekend.
“Free speech or die!” Christian can be heard saying.
Video shows Shawn Forde standing close to Christian. Forde is African American and said he served on four combat tours as a Marine. He testified he wanted to use his 6-foot-4-inch, 290-pound frame as a shield because as a father, he felt for the two girls.
“I changed my position on the train to ... get him to focus on me rather than focus on these two young girls,” Forde said. “...They looked really out of sorts. They looked scared.”
“I remember turning around briefly to the young ladies and I mouthed, ‘Are you OK?’’ And one of them said, ‘Yes. Thank you.’”
This still frame shows Micah Fletcher pointing his finger as he speaks in the direction of Jeremy Christian on May 26, 2017, after Christian ranted loudly. On the left of the frame, teen girls Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed are moving away from Christian. On the right of the frame, passenger Shawn Forde is pictured. Beth Nakamura/Staff
THE ATTACK UNFOLDS
The videos present a grim sequence of events.
They show Fletcher moving closer to Christian but what he’s saying isn’t audible. According to witness testimony, Fletcher is confronting Christian. After that, Namkai-Meche walks across part of the train and sits down in a seat in front of Christian with his cellphone out.
Although it can’t be heard on any video footage played for jurors at this point, a woman sitting nearby testified that Namkai-Meche said, “You’re about to become an internet sensation.”
Christian can be seen grabbing or slapping the phone out of Namkai-Meche’s hand. The phone makes a loud thud as it hits the floor.
That’s when Namkai-Meche and Christian both pop up from their seats, their faces inches apart, and Christian repeatedly shouts: “Do something, (expletive)!”
Jeremy Christian, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Micah Fletcher stand close together after Christian grabbed or swatted Namkai-Meche's phone to the floor of the train on May 26, 2017. Beth Nakamura/Staff
Meanwhile, Fletcher moves in closer and Christian shoves him and then Namkai-Meche -- in what appears to be the first physical contact between the men.
That prompts Fletcher to grab Christian and throw him back toward some seats. Fletcher shoves Christian a total of three times before Christian pulls out the knife and starts stabbing.
After Jeremy Christian shoved Micah Fletcher and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, Fletcher threw him back toward some seats. Beth Nakamura/Staff
Although the full videos were played in court -- drawing some muted gasps from victims’ families and others in the courtroom -- The Oregonian/OregonLive has blurred out some graphic sections of videos posted to the news organization’s website.
Namkai-Meche doesn’t appear to lay a hand on Christian. While the scuffle between Christian and Fletcher is underway, Namkai-Meche is picking up his phone and inspecting it.
Namkai-Meche looks up just as the blade of Christian’s 4-inch knife enters the left side of Fletcher’s neck below the jaw. Fletcher runs outside through the open doors of the train, which has just arrived at the Hollywood Transit Center.
Christian next stabs Namkai-Meche in the neck, face and hand. Namkai-Meche falls back onto some seats, grasping himself below the jaw line.
Christian then takes a step forward to grab Best, who has been standing behind Namkai-Meche and appears to have had no interaction with Christian. Christian stabs him in the neck and face. Best falls to the floor.
Fellow commuters testified that at first they thought Christian was throwing punches because they hadn’t seen the folding knife he had flicked open in his right hand.
They realized their mistake when they saw the men’s blood. The videos show the pandemonium as people stormed out of the train to safety.
BYSTANDERS RESPOND
Passenger Ana Luisa Rivera can be heard murmuring a prayer in Spanish as her phone takes in the turmoil. She said she started recording because she was frightened by the things Christian was saying and she wanted to make a video as evidence.
Part of her video shows Christian striding off the train, still waving the knife in the air. He encounters Forde, the former Marine, on the platform and points the knife at him while quickly walking toward an escape route.
“(Christian) said, ‘Anybody else want some?’” Forde testified, describing how he jumped backward to steer clear of the blade.
The video shows Charles Button, a 21-year-old pre-med student at Portland State University at the time, rushing toward Best with a sweatshirt in hand. Button kneels beside Best on the floor of the train car as he applies pressure to his neck. Another unidentified man also tries to help.
Morgan Noonan, a former Army medic, also can be seen hurrying toward Best. Noonan testified that he assessed Best’s condition and determined he couldn’t survive his wounds. Best’s heart was pumping waves of blood onto the train floor, Noonan said.
Button testified he was “very shaky,” “covered in blood” and “very sad” when he realized Best had died.
“I think I just felt like I let the man down,” Button said.
While Button and the others attended to Best, a man later identified by police as George Tschaggeny walks into the camera’s view.
With shoulder-length salt-and-pepper hair and wearing dark shorts and a T-shirt, Tschaggeny steals Best’s backpack, lying on the floor feet from his body.
A concerned man’s voice is heard exclaiming, “Is he OK? Is he OK?” as Tschaggeny steps toward Best and the men who are trying to help him. It’s unclear if it’s Tschaggeny’s voice.
Then Tschaggeny reaches down toward Best’s body a few times. He pauses at one point to wipe the blood off his hands and onto his shorts. He strips the wedding ring off the finger of Best, a father of four.
Investigators said Tschaggeny also made off with Best’s credit cards, then immediately headed to Beaverton, where he used them at a Big 5 sporting goods store and Fred Meyer.
Six days later, after police released a surveillance image and pleaded with the public to identify the man, they received a tip and found Tschaggeny at a homeless camp. He was wearing Best’s ring on his pinky finger.
Tschaggeny had a raging heroin addiction. He apologized to one of Best’s adult sons during a private meeting before he was sentenced to 13 months in prison and a drug treatment program.
As Tschaggeny stole Best’s belongings, others tried to save Namkai-Meche, who had stumbled toward the open doors of the train before collapsing.
Noonan, who had been with Best, eventually joined them after realizing he couldn’t save Best.
Noonan said he also quickly determined there was no way to stop Namkai-Meche’s bleeding. The knife had penetrated his trachea and he was spitting up blood, he said.
CHRISTIAN CHASED DOWN
Out on the streets above the Northeast Portland transit center, two men on foot and a woman in a car pursued Christian as they kept a 911 dispatcher updated about his location. Christian had run across Interstate 84 and down a pedestrian path.
Alvin Hall, a former Marine who was riding in a different car of the train that day, stepped onto the platform and saw strangers attending to the wounded.
“The only thing I could think of was to ask, ‘Who did this?’ and “Where did they go?’” Hall testified.
People on the platform said Christian had run up the stairs and across Interstate 84, so Hall followed for about a mile. At one point, he got within about 6 feet of Christian, who was behind a tree washing blood from his body with a container of soda, Hall said.
Christian threatened him, Hall told jurors, barking: “Are you a (expletive) snitch? Do you want some of this?” Then, Hall said, Christian held up his knife and said:
“I’m going to have to (expletive) do the same thing to you that I did to those guys.”
Hall moved away but kept sight of Christian, he said. Ultimately, police arrived to arrest Christian with pointed AR-15s, Hall said.
Back on the platform, video shows Fletcher propped up against a pole by Marcus Knipe, who had been waiting on the platform to catch a train to the Rose Festival with his wife, son and their friends.
Knipe, an Army veteran with some trauma knowledge from his time at basic training, testified that a woman gave him a child’s jacket and a baby blanket. He held them to Fletcher’s neck to try to stop the bleeding.
Moments earlier, Fletcher had staggered off the train yelling, “Somebody, help me!”
“I told him he needed to match my breathing, calm down. ... I knew his heart rate was elevated,” Knipe said. “If there was the slightest chance it was close to the jugular ... it could burst and it would be very hard to keep him alive.”
Knipe helped Fletcher call his mother but urged Fletcher not to tell her how badly he was hurt. He said he overheard Fletcher ask his mom to tell his bosses at Stark Street Pizza that he wouldn’t make it to work that day.
As Knipe worked on Fletcher on one side, Amee Pacheco knelt by Fletcher’s other side. Pacheco had been sitting just a few feet away when Christian’s attack began.
Video shows Pacheco gently stroking Fletcher’s left arm, then holding his hand.
Fletcher looks wide-eyed and alert at first. But as time passes, his eyelids begin to droop and he looks dazed.
People can be seen milling around the platform near Pacheco and Fletcher, seemingly unsure of what to do. Paramedics roll a yellow bag with a body away on a stretcher.
Pacheco testified that she has a lot of “blank spots” about what happened minutes earlier on the train. A still frame from cellphone video shows her instinctively grabbing Christian’s arm while was in the midst of stabbing the three men.
That image scares her, Pacheco said. She hadn’t realized Christian had a knife.
“I thought it was going to be a fight where they were pushing and hitting,” she said. “It didn’t occur to me that he’d actually hurt anyone. I just underestimated the situation.”
Pacheco said she still has trouble talking about that afternoon.
“I have a lot of anxiety,” she said. The feeling of terror, “it hasn’t left.”
-- Aimee Green
o_aimee
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