Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump, was rejected from his high school rifle team for being a “comically bad shot” and making “off-color” jokes.
20-year-old Crooks opened fire on Trump, killing one rally attendee and critically injuring two others, but only grazed the former president in the ear before being shot dead by Secret Service snipers.
On Sunday, the New York Post reported on an interview with two of Crooks’ former classmates from Bethel Park High School, who detailed his life several years prior, and revealed that he had tried out for the school’s rifle team.
Jameson Murphy, as well as another unnamed student, told the Post that the team shoots Anschutz single-shot rifles with peep sights and .22-caliber ammunition and that the school’s shooting range is 50 feet long by 21 feet wide, with seven ranges.
Murphy said that Crooks had attempted to try out for the team, shooting from the seventh lane, the closest lane to the right wall, and striking the left wall of the range, missing his target by nearly 20 feet.
“He tried out…and was such a comically bad shot he was unable to make the team and left after the first day,” Murphy said, while the second classmate noted that Crooks ”couldn’t shoot at all. He was a terrible shot.”
“Our old coach was a stickler, he trained Navy marksmen, so he knew people. He knew when someone’s not the greatest person,” Crooks’ unnamed former classmate added. “We noticed a few things Thomas said and how he interacted with other people… He said some things that were kind of concerning.”
Hellbound and Down 