If this hearing had taken place where I'm from in Tennessee, the older man would have been warned softly from the becnh and released, with no probation. As it occured in Minnesota, the leftist judge felt obliged to levy some punishment. The blue states can never get it right.
There is NO excuse for physically attacking another person except self defense from a PHYSICAL ATTACK. If Tabor had pulled out a gun and shot the old guy, it would have been he who would have claimed self defense not the older guy. It is this sort of escalation of events that the laws against physically attacking others is designed to prevent.