If you want to defend yourself, you can’t just wave a sword around. You actually have to seriously injure *anyone* who comes within range. I have a feeling the result would have been similar if he had wielded a gun. And with a sword, the standoff distance is literally within arm’s length, so there’s very little room for error, if you’re not slicing away.
I’d wager that even if he’d had no sword, merely a phone videorecording the theft, they’d have assaulted him with lethal intent.
He was a skinny thing that probably had no idea how to use a sword. Too many movies and video games. I’m about his size and I would not even be in a city tonight, my business be damned.