Heroes, good samaritans, and victims of a hate crime. These are some of the characterizations used to describe Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche. The two encountered a confrontation at a train station, where they saw a man ranting at two presumably Muslim women, one of them covered with a veil. Apparently, in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, Best, Meche and a third man, David-Cole Fletcher, 21, confronted the ranting perpetrator, whom police have identified as Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35.

According to Portland police, Christian drew a knife and stabbed the three men. The Fifty-three-year-old Best died on the scene, while 23-year-old Meche died in a local hospital, but Fletcher survived after sustaining injuries as well. It is believed that his injuries are non-life threatening and he is expected to survive.

"They missed the jugular by a millimeter," stated Fletcher's mother in an interview with CNN. "They cut one of the carotid arteries, and he will have some paralization."

Emergency services were called to the spot by eyewitnesses, and Christian was arrested a couple of blocks away from the MAX commuter train station after yelling, "Shoot me dead! Shoot me dead!" to responding Portland police officers.

The 35-year-old has a criminal record and had been arrested on five different occasions previously for unrelated criminal activities. His history includes felony robbery, kidnapping and weapons convictions for illegal possession of unlawful weapons.

"Preliminarily, talking to witnesses, what we've learned is that this suspect was on the train and he was yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things including what would be characterized as hate speech or biased language," stated police spokesman Sergeant Pete Simpson.

He went on, saying: "Some people approached him to try to intervene with his behavior and some of the people that he was yelling at, they were attacked viciously by the suspect, resulting in the two deaths and one injury. We do know that there were folks that left the scene, obviously incredibly scary for people who were there, so those witnesses we need to hear from and talk to."

Sergeant Simpson went on to say that the two women, to whom they now believe Christian's speech was directed at, fled the scene as well before police had arrived. Apparently Christian did not attempt to cause physical harm at the two women he was yelling at.

"According to some preliminary witness statements he was kind of spewing hate about a lot of different things, so not specifically and exclusively anti-Muslim. There were a lot of different things coming out of his mouth according to witnesses so that's why at this point it's hard to say whether he was directing it at any one person or was just, kind of in general to everybody around."

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler made a statement after the incident, saying, "I want to reassure out neighbours and our fellow Portlanders, to those in the Muslim community who have just begun observing Ramadan, know that Portland stands by you."

Despite the fact that it is not clear whether the murders themselves were hate crimes, Oregon Governor Kate Brown was quick to characterize it as such. "It is absolutely unacceptable in our Oregon," she said.

The suspect is going to appear in court on Tuesday and, according to authorities, could face additional charges once he is before a grand jury.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a report recently which finds increasing trends towards violence.

"In 2016, CAIR recorded a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents over 2015. This was accompanied by a 44 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the same period. From 2014 to 2016, anti-Muslim bias incidents jumped 65 percent. In that two-year period, CAIR finds that hate crimes targeting Muslims surged 584 percent."

The findings include perceived harassments, bias incidents, "denial of religious accommodation, employment, name calling, "hate crimes," as well as other acts.

While disturbing, these findings are probably not entirely accurate. Other agencies have concluded the problem is actually worse than it seems while some have not had reports concluding anything anywhere near as bad, so the problem seems to be lack of information.

California University researchers, for example, released a similar report in which they found 196 incidents of hate crimes or discrimination against Muslims in 2015, a 78 percent increase from 2014. FBI data showed 257 anti-Muslim related hate crimes in 2015, a 67 percent rise from 2014.

As Human Rights Watch and the Washington Post have previously reported, Federal hate crime statistic are "notoriously inexact." This issue stems from two basic problems, first and foremost it is believed that a lot of crimes go unreported, while other crimes are actually hoaxes with dubious political motivations.

Although he has not done so very recently, President Donald Trump spoke out against hate crimes and other similar incidents during his address to a joint session of Congress.

"Last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms."