Two people had recently been murdered by burglars in that area. You can't really reduce suffering in the world by letting yourself be killed.

Granted there are some people in this thread who are a bit gung-ho about it, but you are too far the other way imo.
Don't get me wrong, if I had to fight for my life, I might just as well kill someone. If he carries a knife, or a gun for that matter, I'll probably try to kill (or incapacitate, at the very least) him first.