I agree it's unclear if the armed citizen perceived there was an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury and that's a critical item as VA is an affirmative defense state. "No one points a gun at me and gets away with it" isn't a statement I'd choose to make before shooting someone in that legal environment, it implies that the motive may have been something other than an imminent threat.
IMHO, the armed citizen in question is very lucky that there were other bystanders who witnessed the robbery and shooting and are hailing him as a hero.
It could have been spun much differently. One of the suspects had a CO2 pistol that looked like a firearm. The suspects are also believed to have committed other robberies that night and on recent nights - robberies where no one was hurt, suggesting there was no risk of the victims getting shot, and thus no imminent threat. VA does not allow deadly force in defense of property, and certainly not defense of someone else's property.
To be fair, none of those facts were clearly known to the armed citizen at the time. None the less, a police chief with an aggressive anti-gun agenda, or a state's attorney with a similar anti-gun agenda could have resulted in the armed citizen being arrested and charged. Parts of VA are pro-gun, other parts are clearly anti-gun.
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In any self defense shooting, if you add in some Monday morning quarterbacking, throw in a healthy pinch of anti-gun public outcry, and stir it with an anti-gun political agenda, you have a recipe where a well meaning armed citizen can easily end up in criminal or civil court.
With that in mind my first line of self defense is avoiding situations that require me to employ any other methods of self defense.
