Given he used a disguise and had an escape plan - which actually worked for a time - he might have hoped to get away with it.
Well, he certainly wanted to get away with it long enough to get up to Madison, WI to to commit another mass murder there. He’d driven to Madison the day before, allegedly to scope it out. The article in the second link I provided above (and here) is an interview with two criminology professors who did a thorough study of mass shooters, studying every mass shooting since 1966 and interviewing the few mass shooters who didn’t die during the shootings:
POLITICO: You’ve written about how mass shootings are always acts of violent suicide. Do people realize this is what’s happening in mass shootings?
Peterson: I don’t think most people realize that these are suicides, in addition to homicides. Mass shooters design these to be their final acts. When you realize this, it completely flips the idea that someone with a gun on the scene is going to deter this. If anything, that’s an incentive for these individuals. They are going in to be killed.
I have to wonder: why Madison? Because of the university? I mean, it’s a 2- or 3-hour drive from where he was. Milwaukee is closer. If he wanted to target a college town, there are many in relatively close proximity.
Speaking as someone who lived there for six years, while in school: yes, it’s a university town, but it’s also a state capital, and the city is well-known for being extremely liberal. I have no idea if the shooter’s motivations had anything to do with politics (and they may well not have), but I agree, he seems to have some reason to have specifically chosen Madison as a second target, when there were seemingly other, closer locations.
I’ve been trying to find pictures of the “apartment” he lived in behind his parent’s house. I’m wondering if it’s the ground level treehouse he was building in the videos. Why would his parents let him build that? I can’t imagine a $400K home in a neighborhood that would put up with it.
And on a different note, I hope he didn’t screw up his younger brother with his derangement.
You can’t see the whole "apartment"in this photo because tall shrubs conceal it, but it’s definitely not a ground-level treehouse. It’s more like a cottage.
I don’t know if he’d have screwed up his kid brother with his “derangement,” but it’s going to be rough having that last name and living in the Chicago area, not to mention the media coverage. And then there’s the fact he’s got the same screwed-up parents . I hope he comes out of this OK. I hope he somehow gets real help.
Hey, you went to Madison? I have relatives who went there and speak highly of it. 
Northwestern is pretty liberal, and Evanston is solidly Democratic, , but they’re not state capitals, and maybe they don’t get as much stink-eye from the conservative press.
There’s liberal, and then there’s Madison-liberal; it’s more akin to a place like Portland or Berkeley. It’s been nicknamed “Berkeley of the Midwest” and “The People’s Republic of Madison,” and in the 1970s, a Republican who was running for (and won election as) governor, Lee Dreyfus, called the city “77 square miles surrounded by reality.” 
I loved Madison, but after six years there, even liberal me began to feel like I wanted to go someplace that was, in fact, more closely tethered to reality. (That said, 30+ years later, I’d happily move back there.)
OK, that couldn’t have been the shack he was building in the video. The structure you linked to was a real building and it’s been there awhile based on the weathering.
I was digging into this, but the following article seems to be (as IANAL) the reason that the father is likely to dodge this specific issue.
The sponsor agrees he or she “shall be liable for any damages resulting from the minor applicant’s use of firearms or firearm ammunition” as part of the application for granting an FOID card to a minor.
“I hereby give my consent for this minor applicant to possess and acquire firearms and firearm ammunition and understand I shall be liable for any damages resulting from the minor applicant’s use of firearms or firearm ammunition,” the form says.
Crimo was 19 years old when he applied for the FOID card, a minor by application standards, but he was 21 years old, no longer considered a minor, when he allegedly opened fire on an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
If this is correct, as again IANAL, if the individual-who-shall-not-be-named had committed his crime prior to his 21st birthday (and an ironic gilbert and sullivan song is playing in my mind), then the FOID statement would have him liable. But since it was after, that particular legal twist seems to be moot.
I was trying to research this, because as it stood, I didn’t see the point of having a sponsor for FOID if there were no consequences, and it baffled me, so for anyone else watching the thread I hope it provides some enlightenment.
I still do feel, based on public information to date, that the parents do hold some liability, in that as far as the reports show, they knew he was unstable, but I haven’t yet seen anything that would rise to the level of a successful prosecution. Parental blinders? Sure. Not taking warning signs seriously, definitely! Actual legal ‘enablement’ (taking into account the info above) or failure to notify authorities of a recent, direct threat? Probably not.
Link #26 shows her wearing a spaghetti-strap tank top, or possibly a crop top. I wondered if the blurring was because she had a tattoo or sticker on her belly that had a word or picture that’s not used in polite company.
This whole family sounds like an absolute trainwreck. How do people this nuts find each other, anyway?
Maybe he thought it would be a gun-free zone, due to it being liberal?
The second link in my post shows her pulling down her top and it’s written about in the story also.
It is surprisingly hard to come up with a term for this. You’d think mass murderer would fit, but as you noted, it doesn’t cover the whole crime. Terrorist, to me, needs a political motive. Pathetic loser would fit, but I don’t think that’s going to catch on. And let’s hope that no one in a position of authority comes up with a stupid phrase like Fox did with “homicide bomber.”
Yeah, I mentioned that earlier. He went thru all the same stuff as his big brother and now he’s got this to deal with. What a mess. I mean, who would you leave him with? His mom or dad? I hope not.
I wonder if the older sister had already moved out on her own and how she was dealing with her parents problems.
The 8-year-old boy is said to be in “very critical” condition after yet another surgery, this one to repair his esophagus. This story says he’s spiking fevers, and has fluid accumulation in his chest and abdominal cavities.
Not to me. You just need to intend to cause terror for whatever reason. I am looking forward to this bastard getting the death penalty under federal charges. This is the sort of crime I completely support the death penalty for.
I’ve never seen it used that way in any official way. Terrorists almost always have an ideological goal.
I’m sure he can be charged with whatever local law defines as a terrorizing crime, but that’s small change compared the stack of murder charges he will be facing. Like a spouse stalking their ex and threatening them. Terrorist and terrorizing are two different things.
No need to make this guy anything other than what he is, which is a mass murdering loser with a gun.
FWIW, the FBI agrees with you in regards to domestic terrorism.
Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
No political motives needed.
All those are political. They want a change in government rules or function. I don’t think this guy had anything like that. What category are you thinking he fit in?
As of now, the little boy does not appear to be a soon-to-be-8th fatality. A recent report said his fever went down and he’s off the ventilator, and was even able to be taken out of his room in a wheelchair (something that later will not be an option 
)
I missed something somewhere. The poor child will need a wheelchair for life, why is it:
I’m not doubting you, just confused.
He needs a wheelchair now, and that need won’t be going away.