The family of a man stabbed to death on a MAX train in Portland earlier this year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the transportation agency TriMet.
The estate of Michael Brady, who was repeatedly stabbed on March 29 without provocation by another rider in downtown Portland, blames the agency for failing to take safety precautions despite knowing the risk of violence on trains, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, also contends TriMet doesn’t “provide adequate and practicable warnings” about potential violence on board its trains.
“Had TriMet provided adequate security measures and personnel on the MAX train Michael Brady boarded on March 29, 2024, Michael Brady would have safely arrived at home to have dinner with his wife and son.”
The estate is seeking up to $1.6 million, the suit said.
A TriMet official declined to comment on the case, citing the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Court records show the accused killer, Shondel Larkin, boarded the train near Portland’s Goose Hollow stop shortly before Brady boarded at Pioneer Square. The two men sat opposite each other before Larkin “abruptly” stood up and attacked Brady with a knife.
Brady sustained fatal knife wounds to the shoulder, chest and back.
Larkin, a convicted sex offender in California, stayed on the train and still held the knife by the time police arrived at the scene, court records show. He later told investigators that he “hears voices that often bother him, and that he believed that people were trying to kill him because he is a sex offender.”
Larkin remains in custody at the Multnomah County Jail and faces charges of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
A TriMet Yellow Line MAX train car is mostly empty as it makes its way through downtown Portland, Ore., on Friday, March 20, 2020. TriMet's ridership numbers have decreased significantly as the region deals with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Bryan M. Vance / OPB