As Violent Incidents Erupt, What Makes a Individual Move Into Harm?

During an knife-wielding attacker equipped with a fraudulent suicide belt triggered chaos on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost recalls entering a state of intense focus.

Having grabbed a decorative unicorn-of-the-sea horn from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, the previously shy government worker zoned in on the threat and charged towards it, helping pin the assailant to the ground.

The reasons remain uncertain why Frost went from spectator to “improvised rescuer”, much like individuals who have acted in similar situations, such as a man who wrestled a gun off an assailant on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

For Frost, the answer is not simple or instinctive. He has discussed the event with another individual who was on day release from prison at the time and employed a chair to help bring down the attacker. “He said he reacted on reflex, whereas I was processing every action and outcome of it,” Frost explained.

When the London Bridge attack unfolded inside the hall, Frost said pandemonium and confusion ensued. “There was shrieks, noise, no one understood what was going on and I believe it would have been the similar on Bondi Beach.”

Running towards danger, he emphasized, was not a innate impulse. “I don’t think it comes naturally to anyone. I saw a young woman fall, and she was undoubtedly gravely hurt. So the immediate thought in my mind was: ‘I must prevent that from happening to anyone else.”

He said what ensued felt dreamlike: “It’s incredible, but this was all transpiring in split seconds. It really is like superhero movies, where time effectively stretches out for you.”

He said his senses narrowed to a single point: the attacker. “I had tunnel vision,” he recalled. “My hearing switched off all noise around me other than the perpetrator in front of me. It’s a really strange thing. Sirens were sounding, I couldn't perceive that. All I could hear was what he was saying.”

“My vision went hyper-focused just on to him so everything in the edges I couldn’t see, and what I could see was super-high detail like high-definition imagery. I can still remember the flecks of debris in the air.”

“How you perceive what’s unfolding determines what you’ll do, and your interpretations are influenced by prejudice and expectations.”

A neuroscientist explained that humans, like all mammals, exhibit a natural “fight or flight” response to danger or surprise, but it does not command the chosen behavior they choose.

“It primes your body, and to some extent your mind, for movement, but the action that you take is influenced by a host of other factors,” he noted.

“It is not necessarily a conscious decision. There’s compelling evidence to say that many processes in the brain which determine your actions occur prior to you’re aware of them.”

He said the brand of heroism that led people to run towards danger while others were fleeing was shaped not by “innate reflex”, but by life experiences and any instruction they may have had.

In another incident, a ex-military man was celebrated as a brave individual for entering a car that had plowed into bystanders.

There is No Definitive Type for a Hero

A expert in workplace health psychology, who has a research focus in mass violence, said there was no “profile” of the kind of person who would “have a go”.

“It’s equally probable to be an fierce mother in protective mode as it could be a athletic rugby-playing male,” said the academic. “That’s positive because that means that perpetrators, lone wolves or terrorists, they’re never quite sure who’s going to be the challenger who could challenge them.”

The 'Lion of London Bridge'

During the 2017 London Bridge attack, a 56-year-old supporter was repeatedly knifed in his arms, torso and head as he tried to fight off three armed terrorists with his bare hands.

“Come on then, I’m Millwall,” he allegedly shouted after the assailants stormed a steakhouse.

“They’d come in and kicked the door open, and that’s when the three of them started stabbing me. I started fighting back with them, but it provided that 20 or 30 people a window to get out past me. It almost cost me my life,” he recalled.

“I was fighting for my life. Swinging and fighting. [I was stabbed] eight times and cut in the head as well... I fractured my ribs when I was thrown back into the table. But luckily – my arm’s a bit weak still – but nothing major. It’s only the trauma side of it that really hurt me.”

Called the “Lion of London Bridge”, he said he made a instantaneous choice to intervene.

“You should run. [But] you can be an brave fool and take on three,” he said. “There was an older gentleman with us, about 78, and I think that was the catalyst why I stood there. But of course it gave other people a opportunity to get out as well.”

He was not officially decorated for his bravery and did not receive a payout for his injuries, something he attributed to past convictions. Despite this, he said he would not hesitate to help again.

“I’ve never had any formal combat experience or something like that. [But] I’ve performed something positive. Whether that balances the bad things I’ve done, that's not for me to say?”