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A brief booking interview by Multnomah County Sheriff's Office staff early Saturday morning provides some additional biographical information about accused killer Jeremy Joseph Christian.
Christian was arrested on the afternoon of May 26 and charged with two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of intimidation and felon in possession of a restricted weapon.
The charges stem from a horrific incident on a MAX train Friday afternoon in which Christian allegedly harrassed two young women who appeared to be Muslims, then slashed the throats of three men who came to the women's aid.
He was booked at 2:12 am on Saturday morning, records show, a process that includes some basic questions.
Christian, 35, told officials he was homeless, which is new information. Previous reports suggested he lived with his parents in the Piedmont neighborhood of North Portland. "[Christian] reports he is transient and does not know the last time he had a permanent address," the interviewer's notes say.
Christian also reported that he dropped out of high school after ninth grade, later earned a GED and took some classes at Portland Community College.
He said he currently earns no income nor receives any benefits.
One of the questions booking officials ask arrestees concerns mental health diagnoses.
Although there has been speculation about Christian's mental health, he told the interviewer he had never received any kind of a diagnosis. "When asked if he had any [mental health] concerns, defendant responded he was concerned about no free speech in Portland."
The interviewer noted Christian "became loud and animated when talking about free speech" and included a direct quote from Christian:
"If you don't like free speech, get the fuck out of my country," Christian said.
On Monday morning, the Portland Police Bureau also released a summary of the bureau's previous interaction with him, as recorded in police reports.
As has been previously reported, Christian was convicted of kidnapping and the unlawful use of a dangerous weapon after a 2002 convenience story robbery in North Portland. After serving a 90-month sentence for those convictions, he was convicted in 2011 on a federal felon-in-possession of a gun charge. After violating the terms of that conviction, he served about seven months in federal prison and was released in May 2014.
The documents the Portland Police Bureau released this morning show a couple of new pieces of information.
Christian was involved in a 1996 police report of an assault. He was then 14. More recently, he was arrested in October 2015 for trespassing and then named as the subject in a Jan. 27, 2017 police report regarding an aggravated assault. He was not charged in that case.
The police bureau declined to release any of the above reports, citing an exemption to the Oregon public records law that allows law enforcement officials to withhold reports that are part of a pending criminal investigation. That is standard operating procedure.
Christian will be arraigned at 2:30 pm today.