I heard a report that said he was rather obsessed with the JFK assassination. They thought he might have left the gun behind deliberately in imitation of Lee Oswald.
ETA: I’m a bit dubious. I think that his thought was that carrying the weapon would make it too hard for him to get away. It’s not hideable, and people could grab it.
If you take a look at the video I posted earlier, both of these questions are answered. You’ll have to take them on their word about what they do with the data after they have it. They also get into how/why they can find a sample of your DNA and get a pretty good idea of who it belongs to just based on other relatives that are already in their system.
Is there more on this? I saw that first page on the tweet linked, and it looks to me like it should be a fairly reasonable cipher to crack. The guy’s not a cryptographer, and there lots of repeated sequences of two digits – I’m guessing someone out there has it figured out by now.
We may never know what was going through this wingnut’s head.
But, having watched far too many movies about hitmen, it occurs to me that if he enough foresight to make his escape in women’s clothes, he might have found a way to hide the weapon in a folded camp chair and run away with it.
Spoilered in case it gives the next wingnut any ideas.
The record for the fastest full genome sequencing is under 6 hours.
I don’t know how fast you can do the comparatively very sparse SNP tests used in IDs, but, given that record, my guess is “PDQ”.
He covered up his tatoos with a disguise. Seems like he profiled himself to avoid suspicion because nobody would have seen him. He was just another face in the crowd.
I did see a picture of him in his “ disguise, I don’t see one where I could link or copy. He was wearing a shiny blouse, red, white, and blue scarf, make up and a long brunette wig. The picture was shown on msnbc.
Some more details (no surprise):
In the past I read a news story about some police detective sending in a dna sample from a case they were working to one of these services, claiming it was his own sample, that he was just another person who wanted to know where he came from, if he had any relatives, etc.
And it turned out that one of familial matches they pointed him to turned out to be a close relative of the guy they ended up convicting. I assume they weren’t able to use the actual dna evidence, but sometimes I guess simply knowing you are looking for someone that is genetically a son/brother/cousin/etc of Person P, lets you look closely enough at Persons QRST etc. to spot who looks suspicious for other means/motive/opportunity type reasons, and then you look for admissable evidence.
A neighbor who requested anonymity told The Daily Beast that Crimo would ride around the neighborhood and nearby nature preserves on an electric bicycle, blasting heavy metal. He used to drive a car with “pussymobile” written across the back of it.
A class act. 
The article also says he posted a video of a beheading on a message board devoted to death.
No kidding:
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Police officials in suburban Chicago said they had seized 16 knives, a dagger and a sword in 2019 from a man who was charged on Tuesday with seven counts of murder in connection with the deaths of seven people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill.
Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said officials had seized the weapons from the man, Robert E. Crimo III, after a family member told officers in April 2019 that he had planned to “kill everyone.” He was not charged in connection with that incident.
That’s from the NYT’s live updates (so probably subscription required, but that blurb tells the story well enough).
Perfectly normal young man. The all AmeriKan boy from the Midwest.
cf. QAnon Shaman, AKA Jacob Anthony Chansley
This little family went to the parade. Mom, Dad, 2-year-old son.
Baby’s an orphan now. I have no words.
Is that an auto-generated hotlink to Kevin McCarthy on that page or something? Because I’m pretty sure that’s not the same Kevin McCarthy. WTF?
That’s … kinda weird. AI, what can I tell you?
To add to ASL_v2.0’s info about the knives seized:
“Additionally and importantly, the father claimed the knives were his and they were being stored in the individual’s closet for safekeeping. Based upon that information, the Highland Park Police returned the knives to the father later that afternoon,” state police added.
And
State Police Master Sgt. Delilah Garcia said they looked at whether Crimo had a firearm owner’s identification (FOID) card that should have been revoked, but he had no card.
In a news release, Illinois State Police officials said Crimo in December 2019 applied for a FOID card that was sponsored by his father.
“The subject was under 21 (he was 19) and the application was sponsored by the subject’s father. Therefore, at the time of FOID application review in January of 2020, there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application,” state police said.
[link]
And in April, 2019, five months before the September 2019 police seizure of the knives, cops visited the home because of a report that Cimo III had tried to commit suicide a week earlier. His parents said that mental health professionals were handling the case.
So he’s threatened to kill himself and others, he’s attempted suicide, Daddy sponsored the FOID card, he’s apparently been living off his parents (and on their property) for at least the past two years, and he’s writing some pretty dark songs/making some creepy videos. Maybe it’s unfair to blame the parents for Cimo III’s actions, but damn, what were these people thinking? I wonder if they really did have him in therapy.
Maybe this …
there ya go, that is the picture.
He was a good guy with a gun, that stopped a lot of bad guys. I mean some of those now dead people, or their progeny, would have gone on to become Instagram influencers if not for him.