The law doesn't require him to retreat, but he left his protective barricade and his cover to go confront these guys.
Once you've got the cops on the way seems to me you'd want to stay behind the barricade and stay covered. That would minimize the chance of the cops shooting you too.
My grandmother was about that age (70) when she and grandpa were confronted by a would-be robber while they were waiting on a bus. She threw her hands up in the air while screaming and knocked the gun out of his hand into the air. Grandpa caught the gun on the way down and held the guy at gunpoint.
They didn't go looking for trouble.
No but it found him anyway. I'm sure your grandpa would have shot them if they made a move to escape, to harm your grandma, or harm him. In fact it sounds like your grandma would have shot him in the same situations had she been the one who came up with the pistol.
I knoq my grandma, who was born at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, would have. There wasn't a squeamish bone in her body that I ever noticed.
You are absolutely correct. Found ourselves in the same position once — we saw burglars taking property out of our neighbor’s home. We called the cops and then stayed inside and watched as they came and busted the guys. This was Los Angeles. But we also studied and wrote down as many details as we could about the burglars, in case they got away before the cops got there. Served as eyewitnesses in their trial, where they were convicted, and the neighbors were very grateful.
This old guy, as well-intentioned as he might have been, could have gotten himself shot (how did he know there weren’t accomplices nearby?) and/or gotten a police officer shot.