In their premiere episode, hosts Hannah and Patia speak with Darun Henry. While on a morning run through her neighborhood park, Darun is attacked by a stranger and makes a split-second decision that will lead to her assailant’s capture. Show Notes: Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime https://crcvc.ca/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the premise of 'A Morning Run' podcast episode?
Welcome to The Knife. I'm Patia Eaton. I'm Hannah Smith. And this week, we speak with a woman named Daroon Henry. She is a personal trainer, influencer, and mother of two who lives in Toronto, Canada.
In September of 2021, Daroon had just moved into a new home with her kids and then husband. It was a nice, safe, family-friendly area of Toronto. And then on September 15th, she went for a jog at 11 a.m. in a park near her home and experienced something terrifying.
We speak with Darun about her experience and the lasting impact of what happened to her, including a video of the incident that went viral. We will be back with you after the interview to give you some updates on Darun's story, which is still ongoing today. As a note, this conversation with Darun happened on October 14th, 2024. Let's get into the interview.
Let's start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself and your background.
Chapter 2: Who is Darun Henry and what is her background?
I'm Daroon Henry. I am an online fitness coach. I'm a mother of two beautiful girls who are 13 and 7. And I'm just a very passionate entrepreneur. I had a very hard time.
upbringing I was born in Iraq I'm Kurdish so I not to like go too deep but I lost my brother my brother was killed by a landmine when I was five so and then I was like a refugee until we came to Canada at the age of seven or eight so in 96 and so a lot of my conditioning was limiting beliefs I was very insecure because I didn't do too well in school. I never got like my university degree.
I got pregnant at a young age. And so when I had my spiritual awakening and I was on my own personal development journey and I discovered who I am and how powerful I am. and how limitless I am, I wanted to help women discover that part of themselves. Regardless of what you've been through, that you can become the best version of yourself. And so that's where my passion lies right now.
Right before the attack, I would say I was at the peak of my career. I was just the happiest version of myself.
In September of 2021, Darun and her family had just moved into a new home in Brampton, a city in the greater Toronto area. Darun was delighted to find out that she was in walking distance to Massey Park, which is a small park that sits in the middle of a heavily trafficked area but still feels remote due to the density of the trees. So she started to do her daily workouts at Massey Park.
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Chapter 3: How did the attack on Darun Henry unfold in the park?
So it's September 15th, 2021. So school had just started. Yeah, like I had taken the kids to school that day and I went for my jog around like 9.30 a.m. Being in the forest, I would often like do walking meditations. I'd connect with God. So on that day, it was different because I needed more content.
So that was the only day I had taken my tripod because I do believe that having my tripod kind of saves me in a way that day. I believe I got there around 9.50ish. I shot content. I took pictures for about 20, 30 minutes. I was getting the right shots. I had my jump rope with me that day. So I was jump roping.
So, you know, when is the first moment that you thought like something is wrong?
Yeah. So this was towards the end of my workout. So it was around 11am when I saw an elderly man who was maybe like 80 years old with a walker. And I saw him walking very slowly. And I actually noticed a random person. I noticed he was walking very slowly behind the elderly man, like almost as if he was just like with him, but you can tell they weren't together.
I found him a little suspicious because he was dressed in all black, like black sweatpants, black sweater, a fitted hat, and he was wearing a mask. It was a pretty warm day. It was September 15th. I was wearing shorts, so it was kind of unusual to see somebody dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants. And just fully covered and also like wearing a COVID mask.
Not a lot of people wore the masks outside in the parks. So I did, I noticed him immediately as he was walking. I had his bike, but he wasn't on his bike. Like he wasn't riding his bike. He was walking. They passed by, right? Like they left. And I just continued doing what I was doing.
And then at this point I was stretching and looking at the sunshine, you know, shining through the leaves and just breathing and just, I was stretching and I felt this like immense pain in my hamstrings. And like something told me to bend over, like to stretch my hamstrings. And when I bent over, I literally saw him through my legs.
So I jumped and I was off to the side of the walking path so that people can pass by me. And when I bent over, I saw him like through my legs, literally. He was like right behind me, maybe eight feet away. And I jumped, I turned around. I wasn't scared though. I just thought he was on a walk.
It was just so I didn't know there was someone there.
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Chapter 4: What actions did Darun take during and after the attack?
And so like I was just getting annoyed of him. Like it was the conversation probably took like 30 seconds. And so I was waiting for him to walk off. And I was like, no, like I only work with women. You can't have my information. And so he got the point and it was in that moment, like he didn't say anything more. He just put his mask back on. And in this moment, I realized, oh my God.
He is going to try and rape me because he looks around. He looked in my eyes. And in that moment, I felt that realization, like that moment where you're like, I'm in danger. Like I'm something that is going to happen to me right now. And like, I have to like fight. So I went into fight mode immediately because he looked around, he put his mask back on and then he came to strangle me.
So he came at me with his hands to strangle me. But before he could get to me, I crossed him. So I punched him with my right arm. my right fist. I punched him in his jaw. Like I just, I don't know. I don't remember how hard it was. I mean, in that moment, I'm sure I punched him really, really hard. Not enough to knock him out, but he was shocked.
So there was a silent moment between us where we were both trying to process what just happened.
After you punched him?
Yeah, like just a still moment where I was like, oh my God, I just punched. a human in the face. I was taking boxing lessons, but I always had gloves on. I never punched a human before, like flesh and bone. So there were so many thoughts running through my head, like, oh my God, he's going to kill me. I just punched a man in the face and he's going to kill me.
So because you say like, and you did this motion, which people can't see on the podcast, but you're saying that he was coming at you with his hands out in a clear way that like he was going for your throat.
Yeah. He was coming for my throat. Yeah. Like that was hands down the scariest moment of my life. Just, I didn't even react. Like I didn't even think I just reacted and I punched him. And I honestly believe that like punching him in the face was the best thing I could have ever done because I It completely threw him off.
And after I punched him, I did freeze because I was like, at the end of the day, I'm 5'1". And he's really tall. He's, I don't know who he is, what he's capable of. I don't know if he has a weapon on him. But then right after I punched him and we had that silent moment for maybe five seconds. you know, it aggravated him. So he tried to take me down.
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Chapter 5: How did the police respond to Darun’s evidence?
I started screaming for help, like his eyes bulged out. And yeah, and then he ran away. But when he ran away, he ran towards the right side of the forest. And then I think he got maybe 10, 20 steps in. and he stopped and he ran the opposite direction. And that's when I pulled out my phone and I started recording him because I needed evidence of him running away. I needed evidence
of what he looked like, what he was wearing. I just needed something to show the police. I had no idea why he stopped and ran the opposite direction. But then I realized when he picked up his bike that it was the same person who had walked by me 10 minutes prior to. And I realized that he had hid his bike and was watching me for about 10 minutes.
After Daroon was able to fight off this attacker, she somehow had the presence of mind to take out her phone and hit record, capturing him running into the woods. Then a man in the park who had heard her scream showed up and called the police. The following moments were a blur for Daroon as multiple police officers and her husband arrived at the park.
When I had somebody there, like I was able to just kind of like break out of that shell and I went into shock immediately. I just started wailing like I couldn't help it. Like I just started screaming. There was a lot of police around and that police officer said, showed up within two minutes. He was there. The search started immediately. They were looking for him because we gave a description.
But yeah, he got away with it. Yeah. And then I somehow walked back home. My street was filled with police cars and my neighbors had no idea what happened. There was just a lot of police in the area and they kind of gave me a minute. And when I got home, that's when like the shock just kept getting worse. Um, when I was like, realize, like, realize what, what just happened.
Um, the first thing I did was like, go to the bathroom and puke. I don't know how to describe it, but it felt like I puked like this evil, like it just came out of me and like, it just, I puked and I was, I was messed up. I was really messed up because I kept thinking like, oh my God, what if I didn't turn around? Like, what if? He had just knocked me out before I had turned around.
There's obviously this range of emotions that you're then experiencing directly following the attack. What do logistically the hours and the days following the attack look like?
Yeah, that was a huge ordeal. When we get into the police, there's a lot to say because, you know, I essentially risked my life capturing that video because I should have been running to safety. But I... took an extra 10-15 seconds just to get him on camera yeah when I was very disappointed when they told me that they couldn't do anything with that evidence um like I had this fantasy that like
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Chapter 6: What were Darun's emotions and thoughts following the attack?
They were going to put it on the news that night and show the clip of him running through the woods and my neighborhood's going to be safer place. Maybe like somebody can recognize him. And like, I was so disappointed and so shocked when the police were like, no, like we can't do anything with that evidence.
What was their reason when they said, we can't do anything? Why? Well, because it's alleged.
They can't prove what he did. They just have a video of a guy running through the woods. And it's an alleged attack. And, um... Yeah, like they just don't do that. So I was like, okay, well, what are you gonna do? Like, there's a guy out there attacking women at 11 a.m. He is 1 million percent gonna do it again. And they're like, yeah, we're gonna put it up on our website. And then I was angry.
I was like, what? fucking website are you talking about? Like, I live in this neighborhood. I don't know about your website. I doubt anyone here knows that you have a website or that anyone goes on there daily to check. They questioned me for about half an hour. And I was like, yeah, I was just messed up. Right. Like they gave me maybe 10 minutes to myself.
And like during that 10 minutes I was puking. Then we were talking and I was angry. I was so angry. I was like, what do you mean you're not going to do anything? What do you mean you're, you're just going to put it on a website? Like, what good is that? And they literally told me like, like the best thing you could do is just not go back and to the woods.
And I was like, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, what am I, a caged up animal? I can't even go for a walk in my neighborhood in the park where I take my kids every day. Like, I walk my kids to the park.
Well, also, this is our advice to women on how to stay safe. Don't leave your house. Yeah, exactly.
According to Daroon, the police said they would post the report on their website to alert the neighborhood. But she didn't feel that this was good enough. After all, she lived in the neighborhood and she'd never heard of the website. Daroon has a significant following on social media.
And so the next day, when the police report still wasn't up online, Daroon decided to post the video that she recorded in the park of her attacker. This is the first part of that video. Daroon screams as a blurry figure darts through the woods. The video then cuts from the park to Daroon sitting on her front porch the following day, speaking directly to her followers.
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