A bizarre little tragedy
I feel for the young man's family, I truly do, but from that short article it sounds like he's the one who escalated the episode to physical violence. And I'm not trying to be funny here, but it seems to me that if you raise a fist against a Marine you'd better be prepared to get your ass whooped. The young man knew the marine had a gun, and still punched him in the face. That's Grade-A Large stupidity.
My dog piddles all over the place when I walk her, and no one's ever said a word, but if someone did I'd apologize and then never let her go on that lawn again. Problem solved.