A baseball bat to the head would have stopped him.
or a .45acp legally carried or not. In situations like this the law be damned
Or, if none was available, a car jack or tire iron would do just fine as well.
Did you know that you can make a quite serviceable cane out of a hickory ax handle?
The “trick” is carving the head to a “palm-conforming, orthopedic shape” and shaving the handle end down just enough to resemble a legit walking stick.
[not that I know anything about this personally, mind you]
I imagine the passerby’s were too stunned to react because most of us carry at least a tire jack in our car. A good whack across the head would have put a stop to that.