ROANOKE, VA – A mother’s worst nightmare turned into reality Monday morning.
“‘He’s been attacked, he’s probably on his way to the hospital right now, and it’s not good.’ And I just froze and said, ‘What did you just say?’ My brain couldn’t process,” Amy Light said.
Isaac Light was brutally attacked while on a run with his girlfriend, Eliza Braby.
“I remember we were running, and we moved over to let the guy pass us, because he’s behind me, and the next thing I know, he’s holding his face. I ran to a house that had a car in front of it because I knew someone was home, and then just banged on their door and told them what happened,” Braby said.
Isaac, still shaken by the attack, remembers seeing his mom, Amy in the hospital.
“I remember her walking in after my face was all cut up,” Isaac said.
The attack brings self-defense to the top of mind for Amy.
She reached out to Bryan Cochran, owner of Krav Maga Roanoke, a self-defense organization, the night of the attack.
“The attack this week is probably one of the scariest types because it’s so sudden,” Cochran said.
Cochran trains kids as young as four, in hopes of preparing them for real life attacks - even the ones you can’t see coming.
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“A lot of situations really. We learn dynamic striking, we learn escapes from bear hugs, strangulations, we do a lot of weapon defenses like knife courses, blunt object defenses, multiple attackers. You name it, we do it. Train and train often. Muscle memory is a big part of self-defense training,” Cochran said.
The question the Light family is left with is ‘why?’
“I just really would like to know why he did it,” Amy said.
We spoke with Detective Andrew Brokaw, who helped make the arrest.
He says we may never know the reason.
“We get a lot of the details, but the why is something we may not know for the entire time we’re doing the investigation. And that can be frustrating because the number one thing we want to know is why,” Brokaw said.
The suspect, John Elmore Jr., was arrested and charged with malicious wounding.
Brokaw says the suspect was known to the police department, with a history of previous charges and warrants in other jurisdictions.
