[Musketeer]

I understand but there is a strong possibility the response he indicated escalated the situation.

Such morons are looking to look good in front of their peers and women. I have experienced this before with a really ticked off biker in traffic who took the time to come to my car window at a red light and give every indication of looking to drag me through it and beat me in the street.

Being "assertive" with such a testosterone driven Neanderthal will not de-escalate the situation. To them it is a challenge, and to be honest it is often presented as one by the victim since eating crow for no "good reason" turns most people off.

I am saying apologize and really make him believe it. Let him know how sorry you are and that you meant nothing. Let him believe you are afraid of him and let it look so for his audience, the reason he often is performing. Anything less with such a moron will escalate the situation.

If that fails and you wind up having to kill the idiot you can honestly attest that you did everything possible to avoid the situation. In my case I did not have to pull the trigger, I never even flashed. I did have the gun in hand and out of sight though and knew exactly when I would use it if the situation went beyond the point of no return. Harley Head went back to his woman and friends looking cool for scaring the college kid and I got to avoid killing someone. Learn to be confident with the fact that acting scared to placate a moron does not mean one really fears the moron.