It’s been a few days since President Trump was shot in the ear by a bullet that narrowly missed his head, and a lot has come out about his would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.
As usual whenever a vile human being does something disgusting like this, the media goes around and interviews people he knew to find out what type of a person they were.
As you probably guessed by looking at him, Thomas Crooks was allegedly bullied and called a “school shooter” by classmates. Students who went to school with him say he was a loner and an outcast type who “just wanted to stay by himself.”
One of his classmates was interviewed by NBC News, and here’s what he had to say:
However, some other classmates are saying Crooks wasn’t bullied as bad as people are making it out to seem since the shooting.
By all outward appearances, Crooks seemed to have been a conservative to people who knew him. There were Donald Trump signs in the yard of his family home, and he was part of a gun club — although, he apparently wasn’t very good. He was such a “terrible shot” that he couldn’t make his high school’s rifle team.
Crooks was registered Republican, but he donated $15 to a progressive PAC. His mom was a Democrat and dad a Libertarian.
After graduating high school, Crooks worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home and didn’t speak much about his political beliefs.
Forbes broke down everything we know about Crooks from what people who knew him are saying:
Crooks’ classmates have shared disparate accounts of his time in high school. Jason Kohler, who went to the same high school, told the Associated Press that Crooks was “bullied almost every day” and was “just a outcast.” Julianna Grooms told the Times Crooks was teased for his poor hygiene and body odor, and that peers would say, “Hey, look at the school shooter over there!”
But another student, Mark Sigafoos—who shared classes with Crooks—told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was “very kind” and “nerdy” but wasn’t “as harshly bullied as some people are saying.” Crooks’ high school guidance counselor Jim Knapp said the same—”He wasn’t being bullied,” he told the Times.
Max Smith, who took a history class with Crooks, told the Enquirer “he definitely was [politically] conservative…It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”
Student Anna Dusch, however, who took a government class with Crooks, told the Times he never revealed any of his political views to his peers despite the subject material.
One classmate, Jameson Murphy, told the New York Post that Crooks, 20, wasn’t able to make the Bethel Park High School rifle team after missing targets “by close to 20 feet” and described him as a “terrible shot.” Another classmate, who was not named, added that the rifle team coach had concerns about Crooks, saying the former Naval man “knew when someone’s not the greatest person” and had noted Crooks’ “crass jokes that weren’t appropriate when there are firearms in the school setting.”
The day after the shooting, FBI investigators locked down Crooks’ neighborhood and said they found explosive materials inside his home. Most neighbors have said they were shocked to hear the “normal person” who lived on their block has been accused of such a crime, and nearby residents have described him as soft spoken and someone who “stayed to himself.” One neighbor said signs of support of former president Trump have periodically appeared outside his home over the last several years.
Thomas Crooks’ exact motive behind shooting President Trump is not clear yet.
Newsweek said:
Investigators are working to determine what motivated Crooks to carry out the attack. The FBI said it is investigating the shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism, and believe Crooks acted alone.
Crooks’ political leanings are not clear. He was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but records show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on January 20, 2021—the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
A neighbor in Bethel Park, the Pittsburgh suburb where Crooks lived, said they saw pro-Trump signs in the family’s yard as recently as a few months ago.
“There absolutely was MAGA-supporting signs for a while,” Kelly Little told WTAE-TV.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 and worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home less than a mile from his family’s house. A colleague told CNN that he had never expressed political views at work and wasn’t “a radical.”
Both of Crooks’ parents worked as social workers, CNN reported, citing state license records. His mother is registered as a Democrat, while his father is registered to vote as a Libertarian.
His father Matthew Crooks told CNN late on Saturday that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” and would not speak publicly about his son until after he talked to law enforcement.
Everything you’ve read up to this point about this deranged person who shot Trump probably isn’t that surprising.
Most shooters are quiet weirdos, often bullied, about whom not much is known.
Who knows what was going on inside his head?
However, here’s where things get a little strange…
For some reason, this quiet guy was featured in a BlackRock ad from 2022.
You can watch it here:
The rabbit hole goes deeper..
The Shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was featured in a 2023 BlackRock Ad
• The BlackRock ad was filmed at Bethel Park High School, which Crooks attended.
• Crooks can be seen at the 19 second mark.
🔴 MY THOUGHTS:
This to me stinks of… pic.twitter.com/ag76CTuhhq
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 14, 2024
Between 18 and 19 seconds of the Black Rock commercial video, you can see Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old child who participated in the Trump assassination show. He appeared in a BlackRock commercial video. And BlackRock belatedly deleted the video on BlackRock youtube. pic.twitter.com/hFRbo0zExf
— rilla ko (@rillako479434) July 15, 2024
BlackRock pulled the ad after the Trump shooting.
The New York Post said:
BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, has pulled an ad that briefly featured Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old who shot and wounded former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The company said Crooks was a student at Bethel Park High School and appeared in the 2022 ad with other unpaid teens.
“In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks,” the company said in a statement to Reuters Sunday, adding that the ad has been pulled.
This smells a little fishy to me…
And, it’s also a little strange that both Crooks and the El Paso shooter had parents involved in behavioral therapy…
Take a look at this:
And there it is… holy crap
The Shooter’s Father was a BEHAVIORAL THERAPIST…
——The mother was also in a similar field.Say it with me…. MK _________?
Articlehttps://t.co/IdCrVJ4HfM pic.twitter.com/blTgVhyxjv
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 16, 2024
Friendly reminder that the El Paso shooter’s father, Bryan Crusius, was also a behavioral therapist pic.twitter.com/36dMztY2vB
— JuliansRum (@ItsJuliansRum) July 16, 2024
Now, I’m not saying anything more than what official reports are saying about Crooks deciding on his own accord to shoot Trump, then buying a ladder, ammo, and taking his father’s gun to take his shot is what went on here.
It’s not like the Secret Service conveniently dropped the ball and ignored the threat of the rooftop across from the Trump rally where the gunman shot from…(sarcasm.)
I’m just reporting the facts. You can decide for yourself what you believe.