When Violent Incidents Unfold, What Drives a Human Being Move Straight at Peril?

When a blade-carrying attacker sporting a fraudulent explosive vest sparked panic on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost describes experiencing a state of intense focus.

After seizing a ornamental narwhal tusk from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, the formerly shy public official zoned in on the attacker and charged straight for it, assisting in restrain the assailant to the ground.

The reasons remain uncertain why Frost evolved from spectator to “improvised rescuer”, similar to individuals who have acted in similar situations, such as a man who grappled with a firearm off an gunman on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

For Frost, his reasoning is not straightforward nor primal. He has spoken about the event with a fellow intervener who was on temporary leave from prison at the time and wielded a chair to help bring down the knife-man. “He said he acted on reflex, whereas I was considering every action and result of it,” Frost said.

When the London Bridge attack erupted inside the hall, Frost said pandemonium and confusion took hold. “There was shrieks, commotion, no one understood what was happening and I suspect it would have been the same on Bondi Beach.”

Moving into danger, he emphasized, was not a innate impulse. “I don’t believe it is an automatic reaction to anybody. I witnessed a victim fall, and she was obviously gravely hurt. So the following idea in my mind was: ‘I must stop that from occurring to anyone else.”

He said what came next felt unreal: “It’s crazy, but this was all unfolding in a flash. It really is like superhero movies, where time effectively stretches out for you.”

He said his perceptions narrowed to a singular target: the attacker. “I had extreme focus,” he remembered. “My hearing ignored everything around me except for the attacker in front of me. It’s a really peculiar 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 periphery I couldn’t see, and what I could see was incredibly detailed comparable to high-definition video. I can even now visualize the particles of debris in the air.”

“The way you interpret what’s happening alters what you’ll do, and your perceptions are shaped by prejudice and anticipations.”

A expert in neuroscience commented that humans, like all mammals, display a natural “confront or flee” reaction to danger or sudden danger, but it does not dictate the course of action they decide upon.

“It prepares your muscles, and to some extent your brain, for action, but the specific act that you perform is influenced by a number of other things,” he noted.

“You shouldn’t necessarily think about it as a choice. There’s strong evidence to say that lots of things in the brain which influence your actions happen prior to you’re conscious of them.”

He said the type of bravery that led people to run towards danger while others were fleeing was guided not by “instinct”, but by life experiences and any instruction they may have had.

In another incident, a ex-military man was celebrated as a hero for jumping into a vehicle that had plowed into bystanders.

No Single Type for a Hero

A expert in workplace health psychology, who has a research focus in gun violence, said there was no “standard archetype” of the kind of person who would “step up”.

“It’s as possible to be an angry mother in defence mode as it could be a fit, healthy sports-playing man,” said the professor. “That’s positive because that suggests that attackers, either or terrorists, they’re never able to predict who’s going to be the hero who could challenge them.”

An Unlikely Defender

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

“Come on then, I’m Millwall,” he allegedly declared after the attackers entered a steakhouse.

“They’d entered and kicked the door open, and that’s when the three of them lunged at me. I began to resist with them, but it provided that 20 or 30 people a opportunity to flee in front of me. It almost took my life,” he said.

“I was fighting for my life. Swinging and punching. [I was stabbed] multiple 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 no permanent major damage. It’s primarily the emotional scars aftermath that really hurt me.”

Dubbed the “Lion of London Bridge”, he said he made a split-second decision to act.

“You should run. [But] you can be an idiot and face multiple attackers,” he said. “There was an elderly gentleman with us, about 78, and I think that was the motivation why I didn't run. But clearly it allowed other people a opportunity to get out as well.”

He was not officially honoured for his actions and did not receive a payout for his injuries, a situation he linked to past legal issues. Despite this, he said he would do it again to intervene again.

“I’ve never had any formal combat experience or anything like that. [But] I’ve done something right. If that offsets the bad things I’ve done, who knows?”