Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who shot Donald Trump, was once rejected from his high school rifle club and considered a danger.
The registered Republican and 2022 high school graduate opened fire at the former president with an AR-style rifle from a roof 130 yards from the rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday at 6.15pm.
TRUMP’S SHOOTER ANECDOTES
Now, disturbing anecdotes have emerged from those who knew Crooks dating back to his days at Bethel Park High School.
Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was turned away because he was a bad shooter, said Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.
SOMETHING OMINOUS ABOUT HIM
Jonathan Myers, a member of the team around the time Crooks auditioned, said there was something ominous about him back then.
HOW HE WAS REJECTED
‘He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, it was considered like, dangerous,’ Myers told ABC News.
Fellow classmate Jameson Murphy added: ‘He tried out…and was such a comically bad shot he was unable to make the team and left after the first day.’
Murphy told the New York Post that Crooks once fired a shot that missed his target by almost 20 feet.
HE ALWAYS MISSED HIS TARGET
Crooks once fired from the seventh lane — the closest lane to the right wall — and hit the left wall, completely missing every target on the back wall. He missed his target by close to 20 feet, Murphy recalled.
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Others who were on the team said Crooks would make inappropriate jokes and overall, didn’t seem right.
‘We noticed a few things Thomas said and how he interacted with other people… He said some things that were kind of concerning,’ a classmate said.
‘He made some crass jokes that weren’t appropriate when there are firearms in the school setting,’ they added.
Images of Crooks wearing glasses, braces, and an American flag t-shirt in a yearbook headshots emerged on Sunday morning, hours after he tried to take out the presumptive Republican nominee and killed a member of the rally crowd.
