The City litigation lawyer, described by friends as “gentle” and “chilled out”, fought back so hard that one or both of his assailants may be injured, the detective leading the murder hunt said yesterday.
The parents of the victim spoke of their anguish at the “senseless crime”.
Rhys Pryce, 31, was stabbed to death yards from his home in Willesden, northwest London, late on Thursday night. He was returning from an evening out with colleagues and had telephoned his fiancée Adele Eastman, also 31, to let her know that he was on his way home.
Paramedics found him 50 yards from his front door with at least a dozen wounds to his head, hands and body.
He was surrounded by papers planning their wedding in Tuscany this autumn. They had been discarded by his killers who robbed Pryce of money and possessions.
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Neighbours described yesterday how they heard a man shout: “You’ve got everything I’ve got.” Later, they heard one woman scream at the police: “You’re never here, you’re never here”.
In a statement the dead man’s father John, a civil engineer, and his mother Estella, a piano teacher, both 63 and from Weybridge, Surrey, said: “We will cherish him for ever and always remember him for his special qualities of gentleness, kindness and consideration, and his great sense of fun.”
Rod Eastman, 58, father of the victim’s fiancée, said people should consider arming themselves if they walk the streets at night.
“If you value your life and you want to protect yourself on the streets then the only way is to carry a weapon,” he said.
Detectives are hunting two black men in their teens or early twenties.
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Additional reporting: Tom Baird, John Elliott