A homeless man was arrested on Friday on suspicion of stealing the wedding ring and backpack of one of two men fatally stabbed on a commuter train in Oregon last week.
George Tschaggeny, 51, was wearing the wedding band of army veteran Ricky Best when he was arrested under an overpass in Portland, police spokesman Pete Simpson said in a statement.
He said detectives had also recovered Best’s backpack, which had also been stolen, but his wallet was missing.
Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, were fatally stabbed on May 26 as they intervened to stop a man hurling racial and anti-Muslim slurs at two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing the hijab.
Another man on board the commuter train who intervened was also stabbed but survived.
Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, was arrested and charged in the stabbings which gained international attention.
Police on Thursday had appealed to the public for help in finding a man who was captured on surveillance video walking away from the train after the stabbings with Best’s backpack in one hand.
“It’s completely heartless. There’s no other way to describe what happened,” Simpson told the Oregonian. “That action is just incredibly heartless and unconscionable.”
Tschaggeny faces charges of second-degree theft, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree abuse of a corpse. He is to be arraigned on Monday.
“Based on the investigation, detectives believe that Tschaggeny removed Best’s ring from his finger after the attack,” Simpson said.
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