He just stood there and let this guy punch him?
“Not surprising at all. Maybe the assailant distracted the victim by first asking for directions, or something like that.”
Surprising to me. Stranger jumps out of a car comes towards me, he better stop the ten feet or so away that I WILL tell him to stop and state his business, or he’s gonna get dropped when he gets any closer...it really is that simple. ESPECIALLY in an alley. If the account is correct, the poor young guy assumed he was safe. God bless him, he was an innocent, for sure.
Problem is, if you drop the first guy, his buddies will swarm you. And if you are walking home from a bar, you probably are not carrying a gun, anyway.
” the poor young guy assumed he was safe. God bless him, he was an innocent, for sure.”
Problem is, a guy that young, and probably from a good home, is not likely to see the potential for danger. The scumbag attacker probably played on this.
"Problem is, if you drop the first guy, his buddies will swarm you."
That's because 10 feet is way too close. There is a 21 foot rule:
Originating from research by Salt Lake City trainer Dennis Tueller and popularized by the Street Survival Seminar and the seminal instructional video "Surviving Edged Weapons," the "rule" states that in the time it takes the average officer to recognize a threat, draw his sidearm and fire 2 rounds at center mass, an average subject charging at the officer with a knife or other cutting or stabbing weapon can cover a distance of 21 feet.
Further in the article the author explains that this distance is not sufficient today and should be increased.
To illustrate, I took a training where, among other things, we learned to draw, fire and hit the target just under 2 seconds. My holster for 9mm is Safariland 6280; it's a rigid one, allowing to draw as fast as you can; I think a concealed carry holster would be slower to draw from. (In this county CCW is a myth, so I don't own any CC equipment.)
In tests "Even the slowest subject "lumbered" through this distance in just 2.5 seconds" - this means that the suspect can be upon you before you have a chance to do anything. Firing a weapon is the fastest, but perhaps you had other actions in mind - using a knife, blocking the strike with something, stepping aside, turning and running... there will be no time for any of that. The 10 feet is so much inadequate that the guy can simply throw a stone and hit you accurately in the head.
If the attacker is armed with a firearm the extra distance also gives you a benefit. Handguns are not easy weapons for an untrained person; the more distance separates you and him the better your chances become. That also gives you time to deal with multiple attackers. Even if you fire 2 rounds per second - which is half of what a trained person does - you will take four attackers down before they reach you. Such losses would be catastrophic even for a psychologically prepared military detachment. Most thugs, hopefully, will not play this version of the game - unless they are on drugs.
Fortunately, South Bay area (San Francisco to San Jose) is relatively safe. Lack of CCW is balanced by that fact, as long as you don't need anything in Oakland. But things may change at any time.