Well, I dunno about his friends. From what I understand of the situation, he moved around with a group of people who were just intent on protecting property in general, not any specific person's. They settled on a car dealership because they figured it was a likely target.

Also, the people who assaulted him had not engaged in any criminal behavior until they assaulted him. They were not criminals until that point. They were people wandering around outside. Possibly as part of a protest, possibly just as a group of people seeking trouble. Their true intentions are probably not possible to nail down at this point. But they clearly didn't like the armed posse standing around waiting for them.

I'm aware that the jury decided he acted in self-defense. But he still put himself in that situation, with a deadly firearm, because he wanted to defend some parked cars from Some Bad Guys. And now two people are dead by his hand. Find me the angle here where he isn't a piece of shit for doing that.