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Another ghastly and unspeakable act of violence. This time in broad daylight on a London street, where two Muslim suspects butchered a British soldier. And one woman—a cub scout leader and mom—did a crazy thing: she walked right up to the knife-wielding assailants and talked to them.
According to the Guardian, 48-year-old Ingrid Loyau-Kennett stepped off a bus to confront one of the suspects. She was incredibly calm as she spoke to him.
"...better me than a child. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else. I thought these people usually have a message so I said 'what do you want?'" said Loyau-Kennett, who was on her way to visit her daughter in a nearby borough.
She remained strangely unafraid since the men, though armed, were not noticeably intoxicated. Loyau-Kennett claims her goal was to keep the killers occupied and calm while she waited for police to arrive.
"I asked [one of the men] if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife but I didn't want to say that," said Loyau-Kennett. "He didn't agree and I asked him: 'Do you want to carry on?' He said: 'No, no, no.' I didn't want to upset him..."
Shortly after she re-boarded her bus, the police did arrive. The men were shot in the legs, and are now being held in custody. The British government has convened to deal with what is being treated as an act of terrorism.
As for Loyau-Kennett... She simply went about her business, annoyed that her bus dropped her off at a different stop.
Were her actions heroic or foolhardy?