| Advertisement |
June 2 (UPI) -- Oregon authorities on Friday identified a homeless man they say stole valuables from one of the victims of a double homicide in Portland last week. Police named the man as George Tschaggeny a short time after he was arrested at a homeless camp beneath a Portland highway overpass.
Advertisement
Tschaggeny, 51, is accused of taking personal items that belonged to U.S. Army veteran Rick Best -- including a backpack and the man's wedding ring -- after he was fatally stabbed during an argument aboard a Portland commuter train.
Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, were stabbed last weekend after witnesses said they stepped in to defend two teenage girls against a verbal assault on the train by reputed white supremacist Jeremy J. Christian. Police said Christian had been shouting anti-Muslim slurs toward the girls. A third man was also stabbed, but survived.
Police say Tschaggeny was wearing Best's wedding ring at the time of his arrest earlier Friday. He faces three charges -- second-degree theft, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Authorities located Tschaggeny after surveillance video on the train platform showed him leaving the train with Best's backpack.
"It's completely heartless. There's no other way to describe what happened," Portland Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Friday. "That action is just incredibly heartless and unconscionable."
