When a blade-carrying terrorist sporting a fraudulent explosive vest caused fear on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost describes experiencing a state of intense focus.
Upon taking hold of a decorative narwhal tusk from the display of Fishmongers’ Hall, the formerly introverted civil servant focused entirely on the attacker and sprinted towards it, helping restrain the assailant to the ground.
It is unclear why Frost evolved from bystander to “have-a-go hero”, similar to others who have responded in crisis situations, such as a man who grappled with a firearm off an attacker on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
For Frost, his reasoning is not straightforward nor primal. He has compared notes on the incident with a fellow intervener who was on day release from prison at the time and wielded a piece of furniture to assist in subduing the knife-man. “He described how he reacted on reflex, but I was processing every action and consequence of it,” Frost stated.
When the London Bridge attack began inside the hall, Frost said chaos and confusion took hold. “You could hear shrieks, commotion, nobody knew what was happening and I believe it would have been the same on Bondi Beach.”
Running towards the threat, he emphasized, was not a natural urge. “I don’t believe it is an automatic reaction to anyone. I witnessed a young woman fall, and she was very clearly severely injured. So the following idea 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 transpiring in a flash. It really is like action movies, where time effectively stretches out for you.”
He said his senses narrowed to a single point: the attacker. “I had hyper-focused sight,” he recalled. “My hearing tuned out everything around me other than the individual in front of me. It’s a really unique thing. Alarms were blaring, I couldn’t even hear that. All I could hear was what he was saying.”
“My vision went tunnel vision just on to him so anything in the surroundings I couldn’t see, and what I could see was extremely sharp like high-definition imagery. I can still recall the particles of dust in the air.”
“The way you interpret what’s happening alters what you’ll do, and your interpretations are influenced by past experiences and expectations.”
A neuroscientist commented that humans, like all mammals, display a natural “confront or flee” response to danger or surprise, but it does not command the specific response they choose.
“It primes your muscles, and to some extent your brain, for response, but the specific act that you undertake is influenced by a host of other factors,” he added.
“The brain often decides before we are aware. There’s very good evidence to say that lots of things in the brain which determine your actions occur prior to you’re aware of them.”
He said the kind of courage that compelled people to run towards danger while others were escaping was guided not by “innate reflex”, but by past events and any preparation they may have had.
Recently, a ex-military man was praised as a hero for jumping into a vehicle that had plowed into crowds.
No Single Profile for a Hero
A expert in workplace health psychology, who has a specialist interest in gun violence, said there was no “predictable template” of the sort of person who would “have a go”.
“It’s as possible to be an fierce mum in mama-bear mode as it could be a athletic sports-playing man,” said the academic. “That’s reassuring because that suggests that attackers, either or terrorists, they’re always uncertain 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 arms, chest and skull as he tried to confront three armed terrorists with his fists.
“Come on then, I’m Millwall,” he allegedly yelled after the men entered a venue.
“They’d come in and kicked the door open, and that’s when the three of them began attacking me. I began to resist with them, but it provided that 20 or 30 people a chance to escape past me. It almost took my life,” he said.
“I was fighting for my life. Swinging and punching. [I was stabbed] eight times and cut in the head as well... I fractured my ribs when I went back into the table. But fortunately – my arm’s a bit weak still – but no permanent major damage. It’s only the emotional scars side of it that really hurt me.”
Called the “Lion of London Bridge”, he said he made a instantaneous decision to intervene.
“You should run. [But] you can be an brave fool and take on three,” he said. “There was an elderly gentleman with us, about 78, and I think that was the motivation why I didn't run. But obviously it gave other people a opportunity to escape as well.”
He was not officially honoured for his actions and did not receive compensation for his injuries, a situation he attributed to past legal issues. Despite this, he said he would not hesitate to step in again.
“I’ve not had any boxing training or something like that. [But] I’ve performed something good. If that balances the wrongs I’ve done, it's debatable?”
