As Terrorist Acts Erupt, What is it that Compels a Individual Run Into Danger?

When a knife-wielding terrorist equipped with a fake explosive vest triggered fear on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost recalls experiencing a zone of extreme clarity.

After seizing a ornamental unicorn-of-the-sea horn from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, the formerly reserved government worker locked onto the threat and sprinted straight for it, assisting in hold down the perpetrator to the ground.

Experts cannot definitively say why Frost evolved from onlooker to “have-a-go hero”, similar to 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, his reasoning is not simple nor instinctive. He has discussed the event with another individual who was on day release from prison at the time and wielded a piece of furniture to help bring down the knife-man. “He said he reacted on reflex, while I was thinking about each move and result of it,” Frost explained.

When the London Bridge attack began inside the hall, Frost said chaos and uncertainty reigned. “There was shrieks, commotion, no one knew what was going on and I suspect it would have been the identical on Bondi Beach.”

Running towards the threat, he insisted, was not a natural response. “I don’t think it is instinctive to anybody. I witnessed a victim fall, and she was obviously severely injured. So the next thought in my mind was: ‘I must stop that from occurring to another person.”

He said what came next felt surreal: “It’s incredible, but this was all unfolding in an instant. It really is like action movies, where time literally stretches out for you.”

He said his senses contracted to a singular target: the attacker. “I had hyper-focused sight,” he recalled. “My hearing tuned out all noise around me apart from the attacker in front of me. It’s a truly unique thing. Alarms were blaring, I was oblivious to 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 extremely sharp like ultra-clear imagery. I can even now remember the specks of debris in the air.”

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

A neuroscientist commented that humans, like all mammals, exhibit a natural “fight or flight” response to threat or surprise, but it does not determine the chosen behavior they decide upon.

“It primes your body, and to some extent your mind, for movement, but the specific act that you perform relies on a bunch of other things,” he said.

“It is not necessarily a conscious decision. There’s very good evidence to say that many things in the brain which influence your actions occur prior to you’re conscious of them.”

He said the type of heroism that caused people to run towards danger while others were fleeing was shaped not by “instinct”, but by personal history and any preparation they may have had.

Earlier this week, a veteran was praised as a brave individual for entering a car that had been driven at pedestrians.

Lack of a Predictable Type for a Hero

A expert in psychology, who has a specialist interest in gun violence, said there was no “predictable template” of the sort of person who would “intervene”.

“It’s equally probable to be an protective mother in protective mode as it could be a fit, healthy rugby-playing man,” said the academic. “That’s comforting because that implies that attackers, either or terrorists, they’re always uncertain who’s going to be the person who could challenge them.”

The 'Lion of London Bridge'

During an earlier London Bridge attack, a 56-year-old football fan was repeatedly knifed in his hands, torso and head as he tried to confront three knife-wielding terrorists with his fists.

“Fuck you, I’m Millwall,” he allegedly declared after the assailants entered a steakhouse.

“They’d come in and kicked the door open, and that’s when the three of them lunged at me. I fought back with them, but it provided that 20 or 30 people a window to flee past me. It almost cost me my life,” he said.

“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 fortunately – I have some lingering weakness still – but nothing major. It’s only the emotional scars side of it that really hurt me.”

Dubbed the “Lion of London Bridge”, he said he made a instantaneous decision to step in.

“You should run. [But] you can be an idiot and face multiple attackers,” he said. “There was an older bloke with us, about 78, and I think that was the reason why I stood my ground. But clearly it gave other people a chance to escape as well.”

He was not formally recognised for his courage and did not receive compensation for his injuries, a situation he linked to past convictions. Despite this, he said he would not hesitate to help again.

“I’ve not had any formal combat experience or anything like that. [But] I’ve accomplished something right. If that offsets the wrongs I’ve done, it's debatable?”