Armed with a whale's tusk and a fire extinguisher: the heroes who took on the terrorist

On November 29, a man named Usman Khan went on a deadly rampage killing two at an event in London. The attack began Friday afternoon at an event in Fishmonger's Hall, on the north side of London Bridge, organized by the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology. Khan wielded two knives, one of which was duck-taped to his hand. According to PA news agency, the 28-year-old had threatened to blow up the building just before 2 p.m. "We believe that the attack began inside before he left the building and proceeded onto London Bridge," Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said. Also wearing a fake suicide bomb vest, Khan stabbed two to death and injured three. After the spree, Khan was shot dead. It was later found that Khan was already a convicted terrorist who was wearing an electronic tag after being released half-way through a 16-year prison sentence for plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange.



However, brave acts of heroism by citizens throughout the attack luckily prevented more damage and extinguished Khan's killing spree. It was reported that bystanders took a stand against the terrorist at the London Bridge. At the Fishmonger Hall, there was a statue of the narwhal with a very long horn, so somebody brilliantly decided to use the massive horn as a weapon against Khan. The man whacked Khan with the narwhale horn. Several men were seen subduing the attacker by wrestling him to the ground in videos shared online. Someone also sprayed Khan down with a fire extinguisher, while he was wrestled down. British Transport Police confirmed today that one of the men, who had disarmed Khan was a plain clothes officer. Armed police shot Khan dead after the bystanders had moved away.

This case reminds me of the documentary, "State of Hate; Dark Side of the Internet". People full of hate were seen in the documentary and in this terrorist recently. In the documentary, a person ran over protestors, killing some. When there are such extreme consequences of this hate--even person dying-- it is important to realize how we can step in and prevent these events. Khan's attack was already horrible, but the bravery and heroism of the bystanders, that prevented Khan from killing or harming any more people, was very encouraging. "We saw yesterday one example of the worst of humanity -- the actions of this terrorist," Sadiq Khan said. "But we saw many examples of the best of humanity. And when I say the best of us, I include EU citizens. And what we saw yesterday was ordinary citizens, including Londoners who are of Polish origin -- he's a Londoner -- who acted in an extraordinary way. And I'm pretty proud of him." Ordinary citizens--not police officers or soldiers--were capable of extinguishing an entire terrorist attack. In a world where we see mass shootings in the news so often, it is important for us to become aware of anything we can do to lower these numbers of terrorism. In this case, it was civilians stepping in and using physical force (narwhale horn and fire extinguisher) to take down the terrorist.