Teenage girl pays tribute to train heroes who were killed by white supremacist while they protected her and her hijab-wearing Muslim friend

• Destinee Mangum, 17, was one of the two teenagers targeted on the MAX train
• She spoke out on Sunday to thank the two men who died saving them 
• Destinee and her Muslim friend moved to the back of the train after Jeremy Christian approached them and started shouting racial slurs 
• The teenager said he told them to go back to Saudi Arabia and to kill themselves
• Rick Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, stepped in to defend them from the man
• Christian slashed their throats and also attacked Micah Fletcher, another man on board

The Daily Mail Reports

One of the teenage girls who was targeted by a white supremacist on a Portland train on Friday has spoken out to thank the men who were killed as they tried to protect them.

Destinee Mangum, 17, was on the train with her Muslim friend on Friday evening when Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, approached them.

She told on Sunday how he launched into a racist tirade, telling the pair to ‘go back to Saudi Arabia’ and kill themselves as other shocked passengers watched.

Rick Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrrdin Namkai-Meche 23, stepped in as the girls made their way out of their seats to the back of the train.

Both Best and Namkai-Meche had their throats slashed after arguing with the man and died. Christian is now in custody on aggravated murder charges.

Her mother Dyjuana Hudson issued her own message of thanks to the men’s families.

‘Thank you thank you thank you. You will always be our hero ….I’m soooooo sorry this happened.

‘You didn’t even know my girls but you stepped in and saved my babies life to the family I’m so sorry about your loss and I’m here if you need me,’ she said, sharing the Facebook post of the mother of one of the brave men who died.

Destinee’s friend, who was wearing a hijab at the time of the attack, has not come forward.

She described how she and her friend were sitting next to one another on the train when Christian approached them.

Rick Best, 53, (left) and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Mece (right) 23, were both murdered on the train after stepping in as the girls were abused

‘He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and he told us we shouldn’t be here, to get out of his country. He was just telling us that we basically weren’t anything and that we should kill ourselves,’ she said.

A man sitting behind them intervened, she said. She did not disclose whether it was Best, Namkai-Meche or Micah Fletcher, a 21-year-old poet who survived and is recovering in hospital.

‘This white male from the back of us was like, “he’s talking to you guys? You guys can’t disrespect these young ladies like that.” Then they just all started arguing,’ she told.

Frightened, Destinee and her friend moved out of their seats and were preparing to get off the train when, she says, Christian ‘just started stabbing people’.

‘Me and my friend were going to get off the MAX and then we turned around while they were fighting and he just started stabbing people and it was just blood everywhere and we just started running for our lives,’ she said.

Christian is being held on two counts of aggravated murder.

Best and Namkai-Leche are being hailed as heroes for stepping in to shield the young girls from his racist abuse.

Fletcher, 21, survived the attack. He wrote a poem about the incident from his hospital bed.

‘I, am alive, I spat in the eye of hate and lived.

‘This is what we must do for one another, We must live for one another, We must fight for one Mother, We must die in the name dfreedome (sic) if we have to.

‘Luckily it’s not my turn today,’ it read, according to The Oregonian.