Kelly Herron, a 36-year-old Washington woman, managed to fight off a random attacker just weeks after beginning a self-defense class.
Herron, 36, was training for an upcoming marathon by doing a 10-mile run in Golden Gardens Park when she stopped in one of the restrooms and was trapped by the assailant, who was identified as repeated sex offender Gary Steiner when he was arrested.
Herron said the Steiner threw her to the ground and began punching her before she was able to crawl into a nearby stall. Herron says the man followed her into the stall and repeatedly tried to turn her onto her stomach.
Via Click Orlando:
“It’s a full on fight. As woman you are conditioned to know that that is how a man rapes you,” Herron said. “Thank God for a pair of good compression pants.” Herron said that’s when her training, that she’d learned three weeks prior in a self-defense class offered by her job, kicked in.
“Time stopped. I remembered what the instructor said in class, which was to hit with the side of my hands…Hard bones in soft fleshy places. I realized this doesn’t have to be a fair fight,” Herron said. “I had one hand to use so I just started clawing his face and punching him in the face with the side of my hand.”
Herron eventually managed to lock the man in the stall after jamming the door shut and police arrested Gary Steiner, a registered sex offender, on the scene.
Not only was Herron able to heroically escape, but did so while screaming a badass battle cry: “Not today motherf*cker.”
“All I kept screaming during the attack was ‘not today m***********. I was screaming it like an animal. It was the most vicious savage part of my being. There was no way I was going to let this guy rape me,” Herron said.
Herron suffered bruises and needed stitches above her left eye, but was otherwise alright.
As for Steiner, who was charged with attempted second-degree rape and second-degree assault with sexual motivation, remains in jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.
