PORTLAND, Oregon — The man accused of stabbing two Black teenage boys on a MAX train in Southeast Portland had previously been arrested on Aug. 12 on a warrant stemming from a prior case. However, despite a court order to hold him in jail until his next appearance on Sept. 28, court records indicate he was never booked in jail and was released the same day, a little over three weeks before the attack on the train.
Adrian Cummins is accused of stabbing the two teens in an unprovoked attack. He yelled the n-word before attacking them, according to a court affidavit. A witness who was riding the MAX train with a friend told police that the suspect yelled a racial slur before stabbing his friend twice, according to the affidavit. The court documents also say that Cummins admitted to police that he robbed a convenience store with a knife.
Cummins was out on the streets despite a court order that he be held in jail. According to Liz Merah, communications director at the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, Cummins was previously indicted on July 21 on one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of menacing. He failed to appear in court for his arraignment hearing, and a warrant for his arrest was issued on Aug. 11.
He was arrested the next day, but "despite the court order to deliver him to the custody of the Multnomah County jail and hold him until his next court appearance, he was refused booking at the jail," according to Merah.
"Had he been booked into the jail, he would have been held pending his next scheduled court appearance on September 28," she wrote in an email.
It's unclear what "refused booking" means in this case or why it happened. KGW has reached out to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and received the following statement:
"A person may be refused to be booked for a number of reasons, but most commonly, due to medical or health reasons, or missing information by the arresting officer."
An MCSO spokesperson said the office would reach out to Corrections Health to verify if Cummins was released for health-related reasons.
Merah said prosecutors are seeking preventative detention in the current case, denying Cummins any form of release while the case is pending, due to the violent nature of Saturday's attack and the threat he poses to public safety.
Cummins also ran into legal trouble earlier this year when he was charged on April 28 with felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearms silencer, according to Merah. He was released on his own recognizance on May 1 because no defense attorney was available to be appointed, and ordered to return to court on July 2.
He failed to appear and a warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was cited in lieu of arrest on July 11 and ordered to appear in court on Aug. 31. On that day, the judge dismissed the case because it had not not gone to a grand jury yet. Merah said the DA's office had been holding the case for a grand jury but was waiting on the indictment in the July 21 unlawful use of a weapon case.
Court documents show Cummins now faces charges of attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon and interfering with public transportation stemming from the Saturday attack, in addition to previously reported charges of assault, bias crimes and robbery.
Stabbing on MAX train
On Sept. 2, officers responded to a report of two people stabbed in the area of Southeast 92nd Avenue and Southeast Flavel Street. A police officer spoke to one of the victims, who told police that he was riding the MAX train with his friend when a white man jumped up, yelled the n-word, then stabbed his friend once in the left arm and again in the upper left chest, the affidavit says.
The stabbing victim was taken to Oregon Health & Science University for emergency surgery. The surgeon stated that the victim had an upper left chest wound that had "nicked" his heart and had bleeding around his lung. The stabbing victim is being intubated in the ICU, according to the affidavit.
Cummins got off the train at the 92nd Avenue and Flavel Street stop. A police officer saw a person matching Cummins' description and ordered him to stop, but he initially ran away. Police officers took Cummins into custody about a block away. According to the affidavit, one of the officers said he saw Cummins remove a small, black folding knife and drop it. Officers found a knife near the scene.
A police officer reviewed the MAX train footage. The video shows a white man wearing a sweatshirt with the word "villain" on it, the affidavit says. The white man sits down when two young Black people walk by and sit two rows behind him. "The victims do not engage with the suspect at all," the affidavit says. The police officer watching the footage reported seeing the suspect look back at the victims and reach into his right pocket before jumping up and attacking them, according to the affidavit. "You can clearly see the suspect holding a knife in his right hand stabbing the suspects," the affidavit says.
During the investigation, officers learned that Cummins had just robbed Checkers Mart, a convenience store at Southeast Flavel Street near 92nd Avenue. The manager of the store told police that the Cummins took several snack items and tried to leave, according to the affidavit. The manager said he confronted Cummins, who then pulled out a knife, and threatened him and a customer. Cummins admitted to police that he stole from the store and said he "pulled a knife in self defense because the clerk attacked him."
Cummins, 25, faces charges for assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, two counts of bias crime in the first degree and robbery in the first degree. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.
This is a developing story and it may be updated when more information emerges.