Former classmate: ‘He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican.’
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who tried to assassinate former President Donald J Trump at a rally on Saturday night was “relentlessly” bullied at school and didn’t seem preoccupied with politics, acquaintances told The New York Post.
Crooks, who graduated in 2022, was known for sometimes wearing hunting gear to class.
On US President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, He made a $15 donation to the liberal PAC ActBlue, but he registered as a Republican to vote the following year.
“He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican,” one former classmate said.
He never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything,” another Bethel Park High graduate, Sarah D’Angelo told the Wall Street Journal.
D’Angelo added that while Crooks had “friends” he didn’t have a “friend group” and often played computer games during home room.
Although Crooks wasn’t pictured in the 2022 high school yearbook, he did walk across the stage to accept his diploma that spring.
He was dressed in gray when he climbed the roof of a manufacturing plant 130 yards away from the rally and began firing with an AK-style rifle.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the rifle Crooks used to shoot Donald Trump was purchased by his father, and the car that was parked not far from the rally was filled with explosives.
The authorities investigating the matter hadn’t yet ascribed to Crooks a motive for the attack, and his father, Matthew Crooks, declined to speak to the press because he wanted to figure out “What the hell was going on.’
Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks. The gunman attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue at a farm show in Butler, the agency said.
Not long before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed a man climbing to the roof of a nearby building and warned local police, according to two law enforcement officials.
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