Even then he might have escaped further notice if he'd ditched all the incriminating stuff. It's one thing to kind'a look like a guy in a low-quality pic; it's quite another to have the cops checking you out find all your murder gear with you.

Doesn't really matter. Even if the cops didn't find anything on him they'd ID him for real, there's no point trying to hide after that.

> Even if the cops didn't find anything on him they'd ID him for real

Sure thing. They would know what the guy who kinda look like a photo of a wanted man is called. Doesn’t necessarily means they can pin anything on him. Obviously increases their chances, since they can work both backwards and forwards, but that is about it.

Assuming of course that the “he got just unlucky, a random person recognised them” is true, and not paralel construction for some other mean they don’t want to reveal.

Can cops "randomly" ID people in US?

Matching a murder suspect photo is the opposite of 'randomly'.

In some states, under certain circumstances, yes.

is there any country (not currently in a civil war) where they can't do so as long as they come up with a reasonable pretense of suspicion?

Yeah, that part really surprised me too. He had advanced degrees and top grades, so he was clearly a smart guy, so why did he make such a dumb mistake that anyone who's watched a few murder mysteries would know not to do? Like some others have said, it seems like he probably wanted to get caught.

It sounds like he had a mental break. Not saying he didn't have good reasons for doing what he did, but the twitter detectives posted that his family and friends have been looking for him for the past 6 months.

You can be smart and still slip up, especially under pressure (and as we're learning, possibly mental and physical pain). Presumably one of the reasons why professionals are better is that, beyond working experience, they have a lot of practice.

(In Dr. Strangelove voice) "Of course, the whole point of a ghost gun is lost if you keep it!" Seriously tho, the fact that he went to the trouble of obtaining one shows that he gave that some thought. But then didn't follow through. So yeah, maybe he did want to get caught.

Old guy didn't get the memo to buy him a coffee and forget he saw anything

\s murder is wrong

Which seems likely to have been due to said maskless photo.

He has a written manifesto in his pocket and was out eating McDonalds. It's not like he trying hard to hide

There wouldn't be any face to recognize if he didn't pull his mask down during his trip.