Thomas Matthew Crooks: What we know about Donald Trump’s attacker

To this point, a complicated – and at occasions conflicting – image has emerged of who Crooks was as an individual.

Chatting with native information outlet KDKA, some younger locals who went to highschool with him described him as a loner, who was continuously bullied and typically wore “looking outfits to highschool”.

One other former classmate of his, Summer season Barkley, forged him otherwise, telling the BBC that he was “all the time getting good grades on checks” and was “very enthusiastic about historical past”.

“Something on authorities and historical past he appeared to find out about,” he mentioned. “However it was nothing out of the unusual….he was all the time good.”

Others merely remembered him as quiet.

“He was there however I can not consider anybody who knew him effectively,” one former classmate, who requested to stay anonymous, advised the BBC. “He is simply not a man I actually take into consideration. However he appeared high-quality.

Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park Excessive Faculty varsity rifle group who graduated alongside Crooks in 2022, advised CBS that he didn’t make the group.

“He didn’t even make the junior varsity group after attempting out,” Mr Myers added. “He by no means returned to try-outs for the rest of highschool.”

Mr Myers remembers Crooks as seemingly a “regular boy” who was “not significantly common however by no means bought picked on or something.”

“He was a pleasant child who by no means talked poorly of anybody and I by no means have thought him able to something I’ve seen him do in the previous few days.”

Different group members mentioned merely that they have been shocked that the alleged perpetrator of the taking pictures may have come from the quiet, inexperienced streets of Bethel Park.

Amongst them was Jason Mackey, a 27-year-old native man who lives close to the Crooks residence and labored at his faculty whereas he was a scholar.

Whereas Mr Mackey mentioned that he didn’t know Crooks personally, he’s nonetheless reeling from a way of disbelief.

“It is simply stunning. You would not assume an occasion of this magnitude would come proper out of your yard,” he mentioned. “It is only a loopy state of affairs.”