Although investigators have not yet determined his motive, a picture of the 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump is becoming more clear as his former classmates come forward with their impressions.
Few people clapped when slender, bespectacled Thomas Matthew Crooks was handed his diploma at his graduation from Bethel Park High School in 2022, a YouTube video of the ceremony shows.
Former peers who have spoken out since he was shot dead by Secret Service agents on Saturday have characterized the Pennsylvania resident as a quiet loner.
Jason Kohler, who attended the same high school as Crooks, described him to Fox News as an “outcast” who was always alone and “bullied every day.”
Kohler told reporters that Crooks sat alone at lunchtime and was mocked for his clothing, which often included “hunting outfits.”
Julianna Grooms, who graduated one year after Crooks, also said that he dressed in camouflage or hunting attire and interacted awkwardly.
“If someone would say something to his face, he would just kind of stare at them,” Grooms told the Wall Street Journal. “People would say he was the student who would shoot up the school.”
“He was a nerdy kid, but I don’t think he was as harshly bullied as some people are saying,” Mark Sigafoos, who shared two classes with Crooks, told the Inquirer. “He never wore trench coats or anything of the sort to school.”
“He never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything,” said Sarah D’Angelo, another classmate of Crooks at Bethel Park High, told the outlet. During homeroom before classes began, she recalled him playing games on his laptop.
“I feel like this is one of those things that you wouldn’t expect from him,” Sigafoos continued. “No one that I know said they ever found him to be a creepy, loner kind of guy.”
Crooks earned a National Math & Science Initiative Star Award in 2022, according to a Tribune-Review article from his graduation year. Sigafoos said that his now-infamous classmate would help him when he did not understand course material and was “very kind.”
Sigafoos did not recall Crooks making political statements in class, saying that he seemed interested in how government works but did not try “to insert his own beliefs into it.”
“Shocked would be an understatement,” Sigafoos added. “None of my friends can fathom that a dude we knew would try and kill Trump.”
Max R. Smith, who said he took an American History course with Crooks as a sophomore, said that Crooks did make political statements, but they did not explain his actions on Saturday.
“He definitely was conservative,” he told the Inquirer. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”
In a mock debate, Smith recalled, their teacher asked students to stand on one side of the classroom or the other to signal their support or opposition for different proposals.
“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”
“Everybody is in shock,” Smith said. “He was so quiet, I wouldn’t imagine him doing that. But I guess that was the same deal with Columbine.”
Crooks listed himself as unemployed in 2020, but he worked most recently as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a state-licensed transitional facility.
The center’s administrator, Marcie Grimm, said in a Sunday statement that Crooks “performed his job without concern” and that his background check was clean.
ABC News reported that Crooks tried to join his school’s rifle club, but he was rejected and asked not to return, according to members of the team at the time.
He belonged to Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, which the FBI visited as part of its investigation.
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