If you choose to go back in your house and get your gun instead of calling the cops because you think someone is committing a crime, you better be right about them being a bad guy, because if you are wrong and it is a good guy with a gun, well you just caused a bad situation to happen
Well then, we don't have a problem here, do we? Mr. Thomas WAS RIGHT.
Notice there is nothing in the newspaper accounts about Mr. Thomas being arrested previously for accosting strangers while armed and not on his property. Notice that the interview with the neighbors didn't describe him as running around willy nilly with his AR15 or another gun.
Part of what he did I think was outstanding. He was maintaining situational awareness of things going on in his neighborhood. He suspected trouble. He armed himself and not just with a puny pistol. He remained vigilant while he suspected trouble was in the area (which likely meant he had to be outside to do so).
Where he was less than outstanding is that he unnecessarily made contact with the suspects when they were not immediately engaged in doing harm to anybody or anything (e.g., not trying to break in to a house) and they responded like scared felons in flight from committing multiple felonies, resulting in a gun battle that need not to have occurred at that time and place.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I thought this was interesting. I went into Google Earth and looked at the location of the store that was robbed versus the dead end area (Charlene and Harrison) where the shooting apparently occurred, located the field, etc. The suspects parked more than 200 yards away. Their options for getting to the store and back were to either go down Charlene past a lot of houses and possible witnesses or to go through a field. They opted to go through the field, apparently not counting on Thomas whose house was on the corner of Charlene, Harrison, and the field.