TIGARD, Ore. (KOIN) — The families of 2 victims who were stabbed by a man on a MAX train over a week ago met Sunday night during an interfaith healing ceremony hosted by the Muslim Educational Trust.
Speaking to KOIN 6 News for the first time at the event, survivor Micah Fletcher said he is recovering quickly.
“I’m healing at a faster rate than me or my doctors expected and I am expected to make a full recovery,” the 21-year-old said. “I appreciate the love, outpouring of support.”
Sunday night’s event was held for the victims’ families and community members to come together in “peace, healing and unity” in the wake of the tragic attack.
Fletcher said he wished the other 2 men, 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche and 53-year-old Ricky Best, could have been there with him.
“It’s just said. I wish I had the honor and privilege to get to shake [their] hands,” he said.
When asked about what happened that fateful day, Fletcher said he couldn’t imagine seeing 2 young girls being attacked without doing something about it.
“In my mind, things are very black and white when it comes to people and being safe and ensuring they have a future,” he said. “You don’t let people stop that. Period.”
Fletcher said the attack hasn’t changed him, and that it’s still his goal to make the world a better place.
Meche’s mother, Asha Deliverance, met Fletcher for the first time Sunday. She told KOIN 6 News she believes her son did the right thing by standing up for 2 strangers.
“There is something beautiful, deeply deeply beautiful about what he did,” Deliverance said. “I am very proud of him.”
Meche’s grandmother, Ginny Anderson, was also in attendance. She said she felt sorry for whatever events led the suspect to lash out in such a hateful way.
“Anybody who acts out in that way can’t come in a spontaneous way,” she said. “He had to have been a tortured person. He has to be a wounded person.”
Anderson said it’s important for people to carry love in their hearts like Meche did.
