By Lynne Terry

The Oregonian

Marcus Knipe never needed the basic medical training he received while serving in Iraq.

But he needed it Friday when he helped save a young man who suffered a slashed neck in the deadly attack on a MAX train in Northeast Portland.

Knipe, 34, was at the Hollywood MAX transit center that afternoon with his wife and 9-year-old son. They were waiting for a westbound train to go to Waterfront Park to enjoy the Rose Festival’s CityFair carnival.

An eastbound train pulled up and Knipe could hear a commotion. He heard a man, who turned out to be the 35-year-old suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian, challenging others on the train.

“You want some, too? Come on. I’ll give it to you,” Knipe remembered him yelling.

“It was like he was trying to get into a fight,” Knipe said. “I just thought it was a moron being stupid.”

Then? Knipe heard screaming. Commuters fled the train. A young man staggered out, holding the left side his neck.

“I saw blood seeping between his fingers,” Knipe said. “He had a pure look of terror.”

That young man, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21 of Southeast Portland, had been stabbed in the neck. Two other men, Rick John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, of Southeast Portland, were also stabbed.

Best, an Army veteran and Portland city employee, and Namkai-Meche, who earned an economics degree from Reed College last year, didn’t make it.

Knipe locked eyes with Fletcher and when the two were within arm’s reach, Knipe grabbed him.

Fletcher was saying, “Help me, help me, help me,” Knipe said.

“Sit down,” Knipe told him. “You have to calm down.”

Fletcher was slashed on the left side of his neck just millimeters from his jugular. Knipe put his hand over Fletcher’s hand, to stem the bleeding. A woman tossed over her toddler’s jacket and Knipe applied that.

Christian came out of the train. He had a look of rage, Knipe said, as if he would kill anyone who came close. He is accused of slinging racial slurs at a teenage girl wearing a hijab and her friend, then slashing the necks of Best, Namkai-Meche and Fletcher, who intervened.

Christian clutched a black knife with a blade about 4 to 5 inches long, Knipe said.

Knipe said Christian challenged a large black man wearing a Marine beret. He then ran up the stairs and charged south. Two other men ran after him.

By then, even though only a few minutes had passed, Fletcher was doing better.

“I was able to get him to calm down and start breathing normally instead of almost hyperventilating,” Knipe said.

The police arrived within about five to 10 minutes, Knipe said. They applied a dressing as Knipe held Fletcher’s hand. Fletcher wouldn’t let go, Knipe said. He stayed with him until the emergency responders arrived and whisked Fletcher to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

He was discharged Monday.

Fletcher’s girlfriend, Miranda Helm, 22, said he is in as good condition as possible.

“I feel he’s doing as well as you could expect someone to do in this situation,” Helm said.

She said he was told by doctors not to return to classes at Portland State University, where he’s studying music, or to go to his job at a pizza place. He lives with his mother, father and brother, Helm said.

He’s not made any statements but plans to address the media perhaps in a few days, she said.

Knipe said he met Fletcher’s mother Sunday and she told him: “You’re our family’s hero.”

Knipe served three-and-a-half years in the Army, including spending 2004 in Iraq in the cavalry. He saw fighting.

But he does not consider himself a hero.

“I am a guy who was in the right place at the right time,” Knipe said.

He looks forward to meeting Fletcher soon.

“We should all stand up for each other,” Knipe said.