Two Stabbed to Death After Trying to Stop Racist Rant

Two people were killed Friday and another one injured after a man hurling racial slurs at two Muslim women carried out a stabbing attack on a Portland train. Police say the attacker went on a tirade using “hate speech or biased language” before turning on two young women who appeared to be Muslim, one of whom was wearing a hijab. “In the midst of his ranting and raving, some people approached him and appeared to try to intervene with his behavior and some of the people that he was yelling at,” police Sgt. Pete Simpson told local newspaper The Oregonian. “They were attacked viciously.” One of the victims was found dead at the scene, and another died later in a hospital, Simpson said. The two women at the center of the man’s racist rant were not among the victims, having reportedly fled after the incident. Police arrested the suspected attacker as he ran from the train, but they are still working to identify him and figure out his motives.