Late to the party but posting anyway, like they say the best place to be in a gunfight is being someplace else....
You get to your car and open the passenger side door for your friend and start helping him swing his legs in. You hear footsteps behind you and turn around to see the same man from the morning coming around the back of an SUV parked next to you. He has something in his hand. He is only feet away; you can’t back up since your friend in sitting in the car right behind you. There is no time to deploy you gun/knife so you lunge forward and close the few feet of distance and then you feel a burning sensation, he has sprayed you with OC. You now have both of your hands on him….but you cannot open your eyes. What do you do?
Congrats, you've just attacked the panhandling owner of that SUV parked next to you. Some of those panhandlers make pretty good money, some better than $20k-$60K a year. The panhandler was just walking back to his car with his pepper spray ready in case someone tried to jump him and take his day's money. Coming around the corner he sees you lunging at him so he quite rightly defensively sprayed his attacker in the face. Prove me wrong, think about it.
You didn't check the area for nearby threats: strike one.
You didn't leave your friend inside the building to go bring the car up to the door: strike two.
You boxed yourself in-between the vehicles and door with no ready escape: strike three.
I'm no expert, and I make plenty of mistakes, but I do try to learn from them.
And, yeah, I can be a smartarse at times.
Next time, hypothetically speaking, leave your friend inside the building then go retrieve your car since your friend is probably in pain and probably isn't used to walking with the crutches yet. Then when you walk across the mostly empty parking lot sort of walk wide keeping an eye open on possible ambush locations, you don't have to "walk like a Ninja walking barefoot on broken glass", but do stay aware. And as you approach your car sort of swing a little wide to get a glance around before walking into the "alley" between your car and the next one. Keys in hand double nicely as defensive weapons with no warning if attacked, sort of a natural response. Or just throw your keys at the attacker as you slam the door and roll over the hood or run around your car to escape.
Just some thoughts. I hate it when someone mistakes me for a bad guy.