Events do not get much more tragic than what transpired this past Monday night in Manchester, England.
As has been previously reported in detail, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive at an Ariana Grande concert at that venue, killing 22 attendees and injuring dozens more in the process.
The youngest victim was eight years old.
This bomber purposely targeted a group of young men and women who were simply out to have a good time, innocently singing and dancing along to pop music.
It’s horrifying to think about.
But at least one positive has come out of this heinous action.
A homeless man named Stephen Jones was on the sidewalk near the arena when he heard the bomb go off, explaining to ITV News that he initially believed the blast to be fireworks.
However, once he realized what was going on, he rushed over to help anyone in need of assistance.
Why did he do such a thing?
Why would anyone even ask this kind of question, Jones shoots back.
“Just because I’m homeless, it doesn’t mean I haven’t got a heart and I’m not human still,” he told the news outlet, adding on Wednesday:
“It’s just instinct to go and help if someone needed your help, and it was children, it was a lot of children with a lot of blood on them screaming and crying.”
We truly cannot imagine.
Jones went on to explain how and others in the area came to the rescue of one woman in particular.
He was afraid she would die if they didn’t perform certain actions.
“We just held her legs up because we thought she was just going to bleed right out,” he said.
“It had to be done, you had to help – if I didn’t help, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
Footage of concert goes running to the exits after hearing the blast has made its way around the Internet.
Here’s a disturbing look at some of the chaos that ensued from the attack:
In response to the fatal bombing, Grande has canceled a number of European concert dates.
“We ask at this time that we all continue to support the city of Manchester and all those families affected by this cowardice and senseless act of violence,” her team said in a statement, which continues as follows:
“Our way of life has once again been threatened but we will overcome this together. Thank you.”
Twitter users, meanwhile, have responded to Jones’ actions and showered the man with praise:
And they haven’t just typed out a bunch of hollow (albeit well-intentioned) words, either.
A JustGiving campaign was set up and surpassed $ 38,000 in donations.
Moreover, David Sullivan, the West Ham football club co-chairman, and his son asked Internet users if they could help them track Jones down.
As you can see in the messages above, the Sullivans succeeded in their mission and have rented Jones a home for six months.
Pretty amazing, huh?
The bombing itself was a legitimate tragedy in every sense of the term.
But the response here does remind us of the very best humanity has to offer as well.