Could Abner have avoided killing Asahel?

Here is what the chapter says. "Asahel pursued Abner. He didn’t turn to the right hand or to the left from following Abner" (2:19). Abner spoke to him twice. First: "Turn away to your right hand or to your left, and grab one of the young men, and take his armor" (2:21). "But Asahel would not turn away from following him" (2:21). Then: "Turn away from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I look Joab your brother in the face?" (2:22). "However, he refused to turn away" (2:23), and Abner struck him, and he died there (2:23). The chapter passes no judgment on Abner or on Asahel. Later chapters come back to it. Joab kills Abner "for the blood of Asahel his brother" (3:27), and the book says, "So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle" (3:30). David says, "I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner" (3:28), and near the end of his life he says that Joab killed Abner and Amasa "and shed the blood of war in peace" (1 Kings 2:5). None of these verses says whether Abner could have done otherwise, and this answer doesn't go past them.