Steven Gallant is a killer and a hero.
At his hands, a former firefighter, Barrie Jackson, died in 2005 and for his murder he was sentenced to 17 years.
Years later, on November 29, 2019, while enjoying the first day of a prison leave, in his hands he carried a narwhal tusk and with it he confronted the terrorist Usman Khan, who that day took the lives of two people and wounded three others in an Islamist attack near London Bridge.
The 42-year-old Briton's performance has garnered rare royal payoff.
Elizabeth II has granted him a rare partial pardon for the prison sentence he is serving: a 10-month reduction in the time he has to spend behind bars, according to an exclusive from
The Mirror
newspaper
,
which was later replicated by other British media.
The royal mercy is awarded to Gallant, a surname that precisely means "heroic and brave" in English, "in recognition of his exceptionally courageous actions at Fishmongers' Hall, which helped save human lives despite the tremendous risk to himself." announced a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice.
On the day of the attack, Gallant was participating in a congress that, under the slogan "Learning Together", had brought together inmates with an interest in rehabilitation and training with the support of experts in the field.
The terrorist, armed with a knife, entered the building where it was being held, Fishermonger's Hall.
Several attendees used chairs and fire extinguishers to confront Khan.
Gallant grabbed a narwhal tusk that was hanging on the wall and faced the terrorist, kicking him out of the room where they were.
Before being gunned down by police, Khan murdered a 25-year-old lawyer, Jack Merrit, who had advised Gallant.
Khan, 28, who had been convicted of a terrorism-related offense, was out under electronic surveillance when he committed the attack.
In addition to royal support, the hero has received another unexpected endorsement: that of the relatives of his victim, who died at the doors of a pub when he was 33 years old in an altercation for which Gallant and another man were convicted of murder.
"I have mixed feelings, but what happened on London Bridge helps demonstrate a reality: that people can change," said the son of Barrie Jackson, a young student of 21 years.
He claims to be willing to one day meet one of his father's two murderers.
The British press emphasizes that it is a very rare gesture for the queen to execute her prerogative to pardon or reduce, an instance that she adopts following the advice of the Executive.
Elizabeth II used the same royalty to grant her pardon in 2013 to Alan Turing, the mathematician and computer pioneer whose work was crucial in decoding the code messages of the German enemy during World War II.
Turing was convicted in 1952 of what was then considered "gross indecency" to maintain homosexual relationships.
Two years later, he committed suicide.
