PORTLAND, Ore. — Jeremy Christian, the man accused of stabbing three men on a Portland MAX train on May 26, killing two of them, had another outburst in court Tuesday morning.
A scheduling conference for Christian lasted a couple of minutes Tuesday. He was quiet during the court proceeding, but as he walked out in handcuffs, he said, "Remember, there's no heroes in this case."
The court will revisit scheduling for Christian's trial and hold a bail hearing on Friday.
During his first court appearance on June 1, which was attended by stabbing survivor Micah Fletcher, Christian yelled out about free speech, called for "death to the enemies of America" and said, "You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism!"
On June 7 in court, Christian addressed Fletcher, who was in the courtroom, saying he was only guilty of defending himself "against violent aggression by Micah Fletcher."
Demetria Hester and her employer, E.D. Mondaine, a pastor at Celebration Tabernacle, were both in court Tuesday to face Christian. Reports say Christian yelled at Hester and threw a bottle of Gatorade at her the night before the fatal MAX stabbing. She then sprayed Christian with a can of mace.
"Demetria is a tiger,” Mondaine said. "She's doing very well and she understands her role as an ambassador to peace and racial equality.”
Mondaine said he and Hester attended to stand up for racial equality and justice. He was in the courtoom when Christian said, "There's no heroes in this case."
"My thoughts were, 'Oh, how wrong he is. There are heroes, and you helped create those heroes and you helped unmask them,'" Mondaine said. "I have every confidence that our city, Portland, Oregon, and Oregonians are going to come together and prove him wrong.
"We are heroes. We are heroes for the United States. We are heroes for the world to see our answer and our reply to racism," he said.