So you, being a reasonable person, and just having thrown popcorn into an irate stranger's face, would just sit down to watch the movie as if nothing had happened?
You would not be anticipating any retaliation at all?
Would you be expecting the defendant to leave the theater and call the police? Would you just sit there waiting for the police? What would you tell the police?
There was a seat and a good wife between the two and as far as the victim knew a manager who was going to be there shortly.
All the ex-cop had to do was sit down and shut up and say to himself: “Curtis — just watch the movie” — and the argument is over especially when or if the manager gets there.
But of course doing that in your book would have been retreating — really???
What happened next was in his hands.
He chose not to reciprocate with popcorn of his own or Milk Duds, but to escalate but not with a push, or a slap, or a punch for which he might get one in return — but all the way with deadly force that he secretly had and his opponent didn’t.
It was not only a criminal act — it was the height of cowardice. And as he sits in his jail cell he knows it.