He was held up as a hero without a cape — the sort of brave, compassionate human being whose actions while on board a Portland light-rail train last week made his mother proud.

By Wednesday, though, Micah David-Cole Fletcher seemed to have had enough; enough of the media spotlight, the many laudatory internet stories and even the swelling donations.

So Mr. Fletcher, 21, sat down in a room, turned on a camera and decided to speak out. He was one of at least three people who stepped in to try to stop a man’s xenophobic tirade directed at two girls on Friday. That man killed two other men, the authorities say, and Mr. Fletcher suffered a serious stab wound.

But Mr. Fletcher, a Portland State University student, was worried that while he was being lionized, two other very important victims of Friday’s attack were being largely forgotten.