The 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday was described by former classmates as a bullied loner with a penchant for hunting outfits and video games.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed by the Secret Service on Saturday evening after he opened fire at the Butler Farm Show grounds, grazing Trump and killing another attendee.
Crooks – who graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 – was a loner who was “relentlessly” bullied, former classmate Jason Kohler told KDKA.
He was known for wearing “‘hunting’” outfits to class, Kohler added.
The classmate also provided the outlet with two photos of Crooks that were taken during his high school years – including one that showed the future would-be assassin sitting at a desk in a Bethel Park sweatshirt.
In the second photo, Crooks offered a thumbs up while another classmate – whose face was redacted – took a selfie on a school bus.
Crooks made a $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day in 2021, the Intercept reported.
When he turned 18 the following September, however, he registered with the Republican Party, online state records showed.
“He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican,” one former classmate told The Post in the aftermath of the shooting on Saturday.
“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 Sunday morning.
Crooks had “a few friends” but “didn’t have a full friend group,” D’Angelo remembered, adding that she remembered him playing video games on his laptop during homeroom period at school.
Crooks did not appear in the 2022 Bethel Park High School yearbook, but video showed him walking across the stage to accept his diploma that spring.
He also received a $500 National Math and Science Initiative Star Award during his graduating year, TribLive reported.
Crooks was dressed in all gray Saturday evening when he scaled the roof of a manufacturing plant about 130 yards from the Butler rally site and opened fire with an AK-style rifle.
Former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, while Trump narrowly got away with a badly grazed ear.
Two other rally attendees were also critically wounded before Crooks was shot dead by the Secret Service.
The rifle Crooks used in the attempted assassination was purchased by his father, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Investigators later found explosive devices in Crooks’ car, which was parked not far from the grounds where the rally took place.
As of Sunday afternoon, the authorities had not shared a possible motive for the attack.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, declined to speak to CNN on Saturday night and said he needed to figure out “what the hell is going on.”
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