Police identified the assailant, who was arrested soon after the Friday afternoon attack, as Jeremy Joseph Christian of Portland, Oregon in the USA, a 35-year-old convicted felon.
Christian’s Facebook page showed he held “some racist and other extremist beliefs”.
“It’s too early to say whether last night’s violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime,” the FBI said.
VICTIMS: Ricky Best, left, and Taliesin Meche
When Ricky Best, 53, Taliesin Meche, 23, and Micah Fletcher of 21, intervened, Christian stabbed them.
Best died at the scene while Meche passed away in hospital and Fletcher is in hospital with serious injuries.
Dyjuana Hudson, the mom of the 16-year-old black girl, said the attacker approached the girls while screaming: “Muslims should die.”
On his Facebook page, Christian counts “Jihadi Muslims” among people he
disliked.