If he'd have stumbled walking backwards... which is why I don't.
Good point. In this case, that guy never showed any outward indication of "fight" being on his list of potential responses until way after he could have been dead. But, I don't know the law of the locale, which may have influenced his decision to "retire" from the situation. If retreat was legally required or highly recommended, he never should have closed that much in the first place.
