UPDATED 2 p.m. Friday: Story reflects that a second lawsuit has been filed.
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The families of MAX train stabbing victims Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best have filed lawsuits seeking a total of $20 million against TriMet and the Portland Police Bureau for not arresting and banning Jeremy Christian from the transit system the day before he allegedly killed the two men.
The lawsuits, filed Thursday and Friday, say TriMet and police had two opportunities to intervene to prevent the deaths of Namkai-Meche, 23, and Best, 53, in the 24 hours before Christian is accused of attacking them. The two were stabbed in the neck on a MAX train pulling into Northeast Portland’s Hollywood transit station on May 26, 2017.
The suits say Portland police didn’t arrest Christian after they were called to the Rose Quarter MAX station on the night of of May 25, 2017, based on a report by an African American woman who said she was riding MAX when Christian threatened her life and exclaimed he wanted to kill all Muslims, Jews, blacks, Mexicans and Japanese. The woman, Demetria Hester, said Christian also threw a Gatorade bottle at her face, injuring her eye.
“The woman tried to alert Defendant TriMet’s train operator, pounding on the compartment door three times, but was ignored,” the Namkai-Meche family’s lawsuit says. “Once off the train, the woman found a Portland Police officer and/or a Transit Police officer and pointed out Mr. Christian, but the officer(s) failed to detain Mr. Christian, or investigate the incident further.”
The lawsuit filed by Best’s family says: Christian “was allowed to leave the scene while the Portland police continued to question Hester about her identity. Hester told the officer that they should catch him (Christian) because he is going to harm or kill someone.”
Both suits say that same night, Christian went on to board another train, then rant about people of various religions and threatened to stab the people around him.
“Passengers alerted Defendant TriMet’s train operator about Mr. Christian’s behavior, but the operator took no action,” the Namkai-Meche family’s lawsuit says. “The train made several stops, but no TriMet Personnel, Portland Police officer or Transit Police officer boarded the train to deal with or remove Mr. Christian.”
That suit also claims TriMet and police knew the railway between the Rose Quarter and Hollywood transit centers was “one of the most crime-ridden stretches of the light rail system” yet the agencies failed to devise and implement adequate security measures to better protect passengers.
The suits, each seeking about $10 million, fault TriMet and police for failing to recognize Christian as a danger to passenger safety. He’d been stopped at least eight times for fare evasion and racked up hundreds of dollars in fines, according to the Best family’s lawsuit.
“It is well known in the industry that non-enforcement of fare evaders increases the risk of criminal activity on the trains and adds to the risks of harm to passengers,” the suit says.
A spokeswoman for TriMet, Tia York, declined comment because of the active litigation. City Attorney Tracy Reeve also declined comment for the police and the city.
Christian is accused in criminal court of the aggravated murders of the two men, as well as the attempted aggravated murder of Micah Fletcher, 21, a third man who survived despite a knife wound to the neck.
Fletcher is not expected to file a lawsuit, with the statute of limitations for filing expiring Sunday. Rosemary Brewer, who is representing Fletcher’s interests only in the criminal case through the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center, said she doesn’t believe Fletcher has hired a civil attorney to pursue a lawsuit.
Police and prosecutors say the attack was motivated by bigotry. Christian was spouting racist and xenophobic comments and harassing two black teenage girls when other passengers stepped in, witnesses and police said.
Christian’s trial is scheduled for January, and his attorneys have said they might argue that Christian was so affected by mental illness that he wasn’t in control of actions.
Namkai-Meche grew up with seven siblings in Ashland, was a Reed College graduate with a degree in economics and had been employed as an environmental economic analyst at the time of his death. He was stabbed five times in the neck and head, according to his family’s lawsuit.
Court papers list his parents, Asha Deliverance and Christopher DuPraw, as his heirs.
Court papers list Ricky Best’s widow, Myhanh Best, and the couple’s four children as heirs to his estate.
On the day of the stabbings, Best was on his way home from his job as a technician for Portland’s Bureau of Development Services. He lived in Happy Valley with his wife and children -- three boys in their teens and a 12-year-old girl. Ricky Best was a 23-year Army veteran.
On top of faulting TriMet and police for the attacks, the lawsuits also ask that a judge force the agencies to increase security measures to an acceptable level for the safety of passengers.
Both lawsuits were filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court. The Namkai-Meche lawsuit was filed by Portland attorneys Anne Foster and Samuel Smith.
The Best family’s lawsuit was filed by Beaverton attorney Robert J. Miller Sr.
-- Aimee Green
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