When Violent Incidents Unfold, What is it that Drives a Individual Charge Into Harm?

As a knife-wielding assailant equipped with a imitation explosive vest caused panic on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost recalls slipping into a state of intense concentration.

After seizing a ornamental narwhal tusk from the display of Fishmongers’ Hall, the previously shy civil servant focused entirely on the threat and sprinted towards it, helping restrain the attacker to the ground.

The reasons remain uncertain why Frost evolved from onlooker to “have-a-go hero”, in a manner echoing others who have responded in crisis situations, such as an individual who grappled with a gun off an assailant on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

For Frost, the answer is not straightforward or automatic. He has spoken about the event with a fellow intervener who had day release from prison at the time and used a chair to help bring down the attacker. “He described how he reacted on reflex, but I was processing each move and outcome of it,” Frost stated.

When the London Bridge attack erupted inside the hall, Frost said pandemonium and uncertainty ensued. “You could hear shrieks, noise, nobody knew what was happening and I imagine it would have been the identical on Bondi Beach.”

Charging towards danger, he emphasized, was not a innate urge. “I don’t believe it is an automatic reaction to anyone. I saw a young woman fall, and she was very clearly severely injured. So the next thought in my mind was: ‘I must stop that from occurring to someone else’.”

He said what came next felt surreal: “It’s incredible, but this was all happening 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 extreme focus,” he recalled. “My hearing ignored everything around me except for the perpetrator in front of me. It’s a really unique 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 surroundings I was blind to, and what I could see was extremely sharp like ultra-clear imagery. I can even now remember the specks of dust in the air.”

“How you understand what’s happening changes what you’ll do, and your perceptions are shaped by prejudice and expectations.”

A neuroscientist commented that humans, like all mammals, possess a natural “confront or flee” reaction to threat or surprise, but it does not command the course of action they elect to take.

“It prepares your muscles, and to some extent your brain, for movement, but the action that you undertake depends on a number of other factors,” he said.

“The brain often decides before we are aware. There’s compelling data to say that lots of things in the brain which influence your actions take place before you’re conscious 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.

Recently, a veteran was celebrated as a brave individual for confronting the driver of a vehicle that had driven into pedestrians.

There is No Definitive Type for a Hero

A professor in workplace health psychology, who has a research focus in mass violence, said there was no “predictable template” of the type of person who would “intervene”.

“It’s equally probable to be an fierce mum in protective mode as it could be a athletic rugby-playing male,” said the professor. “That’s positive because that suggests that assailants, either or terrorists, they’re always uncertain who’s going to be the hero who could challenge them.”

A Courageous Football Fan

During an earlier London Bridge attack, a 56-year-old supporter was repeatedly knifed in his hands, chest and skull as he tried to confront three armed terrorists with his fists.

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

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

“I was fighting for my life. Punching and fighting. [I was stabbed] eight times and slashed in the head as well... I broke 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 psychological impact aftermath that really affected me.”

Called the “Braveheart of London Bridge”, he said he made a lightning-fast decision to step in.

“You should run. [But] you can be an idiot and face multiple attackers,” he said. “There was an elderly bloke with us, about 78, and I think that was the catalyst 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 a payout for his injuries, a situation he linked to past legal issues. Despite this, he said he would not hesitate to step in again.

“I’ve never had any formal combat lessons or anything like that. [But] I’ve accomplished something positive. If that balances the wrongs I’ve done, who knows?”