Were Irene's "escorts" intending to kill Sherlock at the beginning?
She sets them on him, but tells them to be careful of his face, as they were to meet later that day for dinner.
In the fight, they attempted to both shoot and stab him. Not entirely conducive to dinner dates, is it?
All I can think of is that they originally planned to rough him up a bit, but as he was holding his own against the lot of them, they were enraged enough to take it further.
Thoughts?