Survivor In Portland Train Stabbings Is An Autistic Poet

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Her 21-year-old son, Micah Fletcher, a student at Portland State University, had always stood up against bullies since he was often a target of harassment himself, because of his Asperger’s syndrome (a mild form of autism), Margie tells PEOPLE.

On the other end of the line was Marcus Knipe — a quick-thinking Iraqi war vet who, Margie says, helped save Micah’s life. Knipe was only feet away from Christian on the train platform when he saw his knife, he tells PEOPLE.

In the aftermath of the three stabbings, screaming passengers bolted from the train, Knipe says. “The next thing I know, Micah comes running off, holding his neck and he is going, ‘Help me! Help me! Call 911!’ ”

Micah staggered toward Knipe, who knew exactly what to do to help him: “I took him to the ground, kind of forcefully but gently also, because when you are stabbed, you are panicking.”

He immediately began administering first aid to Micah. “I knew what needed to be done and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and I ended up saving his life,” Knipe says.

Covered in bandages with a tube sticking out of his neck, Micah, his mom soon learned, suffered a severe stab wound that broke his jaw and severed a nerve, she says.

“It missed the jugular by a millimeter, but it did hit one of the main arteries, so he had some serious surgery,” Margie says. “His entire left side is slashed up.”

“But I’m lucky,” she continues. “Thank God Marcus was there.”

While Micah is being praised for his “truly amazing” heroism, by Portland’s mayor and others, Margie says he doesn’t feel like much of a hero.

“He feels like it’s his fault the other two people are dead,” she says. “But we’re trying to tell him that he may well have saved those girls.”

Margie says Micah faces a “long haul” to recovery, including physical therapy and counseling, but the families of Best and Namkai-Meche “are much worse off.”