Police said Christian and the victims were riding an eastbound commuter train Friday afternoon, and that Christian started yelling racist comments toward both women. A mother of one of the women, Dyjuana Hudson, later told The Oregonian that “he was saying that Muslims should die. That they’ve been killing Christians for years.” The three men then tried to intervene and police say Christian stabbed them.

Best was pronounced dead on the scene. He had retired from the Army in 2012 after 23 years of service, including two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had three teenage sons, and a daughter. Namkai Meche died at the hospital. His family released a statement saying, “in honor of his memory, we use this tragedy as an opportunity for reflection and change. We choose love.” Fletcher, who’s recovering in the hospital, is a student at Portland State University, and in 2013 he won a poetry contest for a poem that condemned prejudice toward Muslims after the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York.

Only one of the women has made a public statement. Destinee Mangum, 16, talked with a local Fox affiliate and said she and her friend, the woman in the hijab, were grateful the men stood up to defend her. “I just want to say thank you to the people who put their life on the line for me, because they didn’t even know me and they lost their lives because of me and my friend and the way we look. And I just want to say thank you to them and their family and that I appreciate them because without them, we probably would be dead right now.”

Destinee Mangum, one of the targets of hate speech on a MAX train, thanks strangers for saving her life. pic.twitter.com/sefmOAyIVt — FOX 12 Oregon KPTV (@fox12oregon) May 28, 2017

Trump tweeted about two dozen times from his personal account before acknowledging the victims in Friday’s attack. He was criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for not doing so sooner, and they urged him to speak out "against the rising tide of Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry," which they attributed to the the rhetoric of his campaign and some of his policies as president.