PORTLAND, Ore. — Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and injuries that may be disturbing to some readers.
The man accused of attacking an elderly man on a Gresham light rail platform on Tuesday told responding officers that they had "saved his life" by separating him from the victim, according to a statement from the Multnomah County District Attorney's office on Wednesday.
25-year-old Koryn Daniel Kraemer has been charged with second-degree assault in connection with the attack, and the DA's office has requested that Kraemer be held without bail pending trial.
With a deputy at his side, a visibly detached Kraemer faced a Multnomah County judge in a courtroom on Wednesday. He made an initial plea of "not guilty."
The DA's office statement revealed a few additional details about the alleged attack. It happened just after 2 a.m. on Tuesday, on the Cleveland TriMet MAX platform off Northeast 8th Street in Gresham.
Kraemer allegedly approached a 78-year-old man on the platform and attacked him, biting the man's face. Gresham police reported that Kraemer tore off the victim's ear as well as skin on part of the elderly man's face, revealing the victim's skull.
Police said that Kraemer was still on top of the victim, biting him, when Gresham police officers and Multnomah County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived and took him into custody.
"I was quite frankly in shock," said state Rep. Ricki Ruiz, who represents a large portion of Gresham. "Very concerning, worrisome, and quite frankly terrifying just seeing this around the corner from where I live."
According to the DA's office statement, Kraemer spoke to investigators in a subsequent interview. He said that he believed that the victim was a "robot" trying to kill him, the DA's office said, "based on how the victim smelled."
"Kraemer further stated that he spit out the flesh of the victim that he had consumed and that the responding law enforcement had saved his life by separating him from 'the robot,'" the DA's office continued.
Kraemer told investigators that he'd consumed alcohol, cannabis and fentanyl pills, according to the DA's office.
On an intake release assessment form filed through the Multnomah County Circuit Court, Kraemer scored a 2, when a score of 6 or more would require that he be held in jail. This is primarily because he has no criminal history to speak of in Oregon, or in his home state of Georgia.
At the time of this assessment, Kraemer did not self-report any history of drug abuse, which would have factored into the score, and said only that he used alcohol.
Kraemer did say that he'd been evicted from a house in St. Johns in November and was unemployed.
KGW's Mike Benner spoke with the homeowner on Wednesday, who said that he rented a room to Kraemer for about a month. He said that Kraemer was pleasant and sweet when he was not drinking or smoking marijuana, but he said that something had changed recently. Kraemer started mumbling to himself and caused damage to the home until they kicked him out, according to the homeowner.
Before Kraemer's change in demeanor, he told the homeowner that he'd attended Oberlin College in Ohio. The school's athletics website lists Kraemer as a goalie on the men's soccer team in 2015 and 2016.