Courage and Compassion

"I took his arm to feel his pulse. There was blood on the pavement where he had been dragged and blood was pouring out of him. Suddenly this excited black man came up to me and said, 'Get away from the body; don't touch it'. I looked up and I could see red hands, a bloodied revolver, bloodied meat cleaver and a butcher's knife. OK, I thought, this is bad."
"There were 50 to 60 people. They were watching; filming on their phones. I pushed one back because he was too close. I told them if they want to do something, come and help. It made me sad. They were thinking of themselves, not about this poor guy."
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, London, England

This straightforward, non-nonsense woman, middle-aged, confronted by the spectacle of an murderous atrocity that had just occurred, remained cool and collected as she made every effort to make sense of the senseless, aid someone beyond human intervention, and cope with the situation facing her of a seemingly demented killer ordering her to take her distance from the body of a young man he had just transformed horribly into a mutilated corpse.

The single mother, formerly a cub scout leader, and a teacher, has most likely, throughout her life of 48 years, been exposed to just about any startling situation that required her level head to immediately take steps to ameliorate. She was obviously capable of separating her emotions in this situation; compelling herself not to panic, guiding herself to meeting a situation that required a clear mind and an ample response.

Before her stood two men holding butcher's knives, meat cleavers and a revolver. Their aggressive attitudes embellished by the residue of a man's life colouring their hands, their arms, their clothing. "Would you like to give me what you have in your hands?" she asked, just as she would attempt to disarm the poor behaviour of a tantrum in a child under her care, threatening to throw pottery around. "We want to start a war. I will shoot the police when they come. I want to kill them", one man said.

"That's not going to happen", she said calmly, confronting the two. Whom, despite having run down an innocent man with their vehicle, then slashing him countless times, attempting disembowelment and decapitation, all the while encouraging bystanders to take pictures, videos of their bravura performance, are being spoken of by the news media as "suspects", not the murderers they clearly are. "I am here and I am going to listen to you", said Ms. Loyau-Kennett, and she did, until the arrival of the police.

^{Ingrid Loyau-Kennett confronts one of the attackers (@dannymckiernan)}
 
Assured her presence was no longer required she simply left. She had calmed the two terrorists, kept them engaged until the arrival of the police, and was prepared to continue on her way. There were others who exhibited compassion and spirit, a Caribbean women who attempted to aid Drummer Lee Rigby, the 25-year-old who had been selected by the two terrorists as their ideological-statement target.

It was she who informed Ms. Loyau-Kennett that there was nothing that could be done for Lee Rigby.