One year later: Woman who survives brutal bathroom attack to host another self-defense class

The woman who fought off her attacker in a public restroom in Seattle last year is helping to host another free self-defense class for the community.

“It's been a message I’ve been compelled to share with other women. You just have to believe in yourself. It’s in there,” Kelly Herron said.

It's been nearly a year since Herron had to fight for her life. Today, the cuts and bruises have healed. You can't see the trauma she's still recovering from, but sharing her story of survival helps.

“I'm happy that my story could inspire people to have a voice, not just in physically fighting back but also in standing their ground and not letting other people underestimate them,” Herron said.

KIRO 7 first interview Herron just a few days after she survived the assault in March of 2017.

She was on a marathon training run when she stopped to use the bathroom at Golden Gardens Park in Ballard.

Police say Gary Steiner, a homeless level 3 sex offender who was convicted of assaulting several women in Arizona, hid in a stall and tried to rape her.

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She fought him off, and ran out while others helped lock him inside the bathroom.

What saved her life, she said, was a self-defense class she'd taken through her work just 3 weeks before the attack.

Herron's employer "RealSelf" then held a free self-defense class for the community, taught by the same instructor at Fighting Chance Seattle who armed Herron with the skills to fight off her attacker.

“It's really about the muscle memory and practicing and continue to do it,” Herron explained.

For the second year in a row, "RealSelf" will host another free self-defense class this Wednesday.

It will also include a workshop on consent and setting boundaries in the wake of the #Metoo movement.

“There's a spectrum where sexual violence is on one end of that and self-defense is the ultimate no,” Herron explained. “But also along that spectrum are things like harassment in the workplace or someone just being creepy towards you.”

Though the class is full, Herron encourages people to sign up for other classes.

“So many timespeople have come up to me after I've given a talk or something and say ‘I don’t think I could have survived that.’ And I just want so much to be like, you first you have to believe you can. And then just arm yourself with fundamental skills and find that savage part of yourself and know that it is there,” Herron said.

Gary Steiner will be in court this week. A hearing will be held on Thursday to determine his competency. He still has not entered a plea in the case.

Cox Media Group