battle formations and tactics

The story shocked me more than usual because I know my friend is a fairly good martial artist. He is often dubbed as 'talented' by his colleagues and superiors. What's wrong with this story? In theory, he may have wasted the thief quickly while he clearly had no weapon with him. According to him, he didn't know what to do. He knew how he could subdue such assault but he just did not know how to handle it at that time.