Nate Hanson

KGW-TV, Portland, Ore., Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Authorities on Saturday identified a 35-year-old Portland man as the suspect in the fatal stabbing of two people on a Portland light-rail train in Oregon.

Jeremy Joseph Christian is being held in the Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder and attempted murder.

Police say two people died Friday and another was hurt in the stabbing after a man yelled racial slurs at two young women who appeared to be Muslim, one of whom was wearing a hijab.

Police say that before the stabbing the assailant was ranting on many topics, using “hate speech or biased language.”

One person was dead at the scene and another died at a hospital. The third person was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The victims have not yet been identified.

Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said the rants weren't exclusively anti-Muslim, but at some point the man began directing his speech at the two women. One of them was wearing a hijab, witnesses said.

“(The suspect) was just cursing, cursing, cursing, and so the passengers were getting nervous so the girls moved to our area," said Arsenia Brittell, who was seated behind the driver of the train.

While the man was yelling, other passengers began trying to calm him down. Then the man attacked three of the people who intervened, Simpson said.

Brittell said the suspect slashed the throats of the victims. "I saw the guy stabbed in the neck and bleeding."

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Another witness, Marcus Knipe, said he helped one of the victims who was bleeding from the neck.

"He ran onto the platform. He had been slashed in the neck but not severe wounds. But still pretty traumatic," Knipe said.

The man ran from the train into a nearby neighborhood, where police took him into custody. Simpson said it's not yet known what prompted the attack.

The stabbing occurred about 4:30 p.m. when the train was at the Hollywood Transit Center in northeast Portland.

Simpson said the women left the scene before police were able to talk with them but that they would like to hear from them to help fill in what happened.

“It’s horrific,” Simpson said. “There’s no other word to describe what happened today.”

Hillary Clinton called the attack "heartbreaking" in a tweet.

Millions of Muslims marked the start of Ramadan Friday, a time of intense prayer, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.

Contributing: The Associated Press