>>808882Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche was on a MAX train Friday afternoon, talking to his aunt on the phone. He chatted about his job, his girlfriend and the new life unfolding after his 2016 graduation from Reed College.
Teresa Van Olphlen says that over the phone, she could hear someone yelling. Another passenger was launching into a tirade against two teenage girls, one wearing a hijab. She urged her nephew not to intervene, but Meche told her the situation was escalating, and he needed to get off the phone.
“He obviously couldn’t just sit there and be OK with what was going on,” Van Olphen told The Seattle Times.
In the moments that followed, Meche, 23, and two other light-rail passengers tried to halt the verbal abuse. The man hurling the insults turned his rage — and a knife — on the good Samaritans.
