By EMS1 Staff
PORTLAND, Ore. – A former paramedic is speaking out about his attempts to save one of two men who were fatally stabbed on a train Friday.
Michael Kennedy was one of several passengers on the MAX train who ran toward the scene to render aid to the two men who had been stabbed. The victims had tried to intervene when a passenger screamed racial slurs at two young women.
USA Today reported that Kennedy, who was seated in another car, sprang into action and started chest compressions on victim Rick Best.
Kennedy said it was like nothing he’d ever seen.
“I’ve seen people getting killed before, I’ve seen car wrecks. I’ve seen all that. I have never seen or been prepared for two men getting knifed down in an attack,” he said.
Kennedy said both of the victims’ throats were slit near the carotid artery. He knelt beside Best and tried to clear his airways before starting CPR.
“It felt like a really, really long time,” Kennedy said. “You count when you do compressions. I counted to 100 many, many times.”
Firefighters eventually arrived and declared Best, who was a veteran, dead.
Another man who intervened, Taliesin Namkai Meche died at the hospital, while a third, Micah Fletcher, is expected to recover.
Kennedy wants Best’s family to know he was not alone.
“He was surrounded by people who were soothing him and caring for him,” he said. “He did not die alone.”
The suspect, Jeremy Christian, is in custody for aggravated murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a weapon.