crime

Seattle Jogger Attacked in Public Bathroom Fights Back

Photo: MS YAPR/Getty Images

Seattle jogger Kelly Herron was four miles into her run when she stopped in a public restroom for a break. As she told ABC News, “As I was drying my hands I became aware that something was wrong,” and turned around to see a man who had been hiding in one of the stalls. “He immediately took me down to the ground, hit both my knees and legs, and then it was a fight on the bathroom floor and I just kept screaming, ‘not today motherf****r,’” which she referred to as a sort of “battle cry.”

During the attack, it occurred to her “this doesn’t have to be a fair fight,” which is when her self-defense training kicked into gear. “All those little things that I learned in my life … how to punch and everything came back to me,” she told ABC. “I started to feel like I was going to lose consciousness … but I got another surge of adrenaline and I reached for the door and was able to get out.” In the class she took just three weeks before, “I learned, hit with hard bones to soft fleshy places so I just started hitting the side of his head.”

Herron and a passerby were able to lock the attacker, Gary Steiner, into the bathroom with a carabiner until the police arrived. Steiner is a registered sex offender in Arizona.

Herron posted a photo of her bruised and stitched-up face on Instagram, along with the GPS tracking of her attack, and a pretty great message.

Seattle Jogger Attacked in Public Bathroom Fights Back