The 20-year-old failed assassin who attempted to kill former President Donald Trump was rejected by his high school's rifle club for being a "comically bad" shot.
Thomas Matthew Crooks shot the former president in the ear, killed one attendee, and critically injured two others during Trump's speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
If Trump had not turned his head less than a second before the bullet struck his ear, it would have gone through his skull and almost certainly would have been fatal.
Speaking to the New York Post, two former classmates of Crooks discussed his attempt to try out for the Bethel Park High School rifle club.
The Post reports:The team at Bethel Park shoots Anschutz single-shot rifles with peep sights and .22-caliber ammunition, Jameson Murphy and another former student explained.
The shooting range at the school is 50 feet long by 21 feet wide, with seven ranges.
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. 🚨𝐍𝐄𝐖: The Trump shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was bullied in school and rejected from the rifle club. A notoriously bad shot and he made ‘strange’ comments.
“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 paper.
A former classmate claims that Thomas Matthew Crooks tried out for the rifle team at Bethel Park High School. The… pic.twitter.com/khFg7rcaNN
— Only Mob King 🇺🇸 (@OnlyMobKing) July 14, 2024
The second classmate, who was not named in the report, added Crooks "couldn’t shoot at all. He was a terrible shot."
According to the former classmates, the team's coach also had concerns about Crooks' behavior.
“Our old coach was a stickler, he trained Navy marksmen, so he knew people. He knew when someone’s not the greatest person,” the unnamed classmate explained.
“We noticed a few things Thomas said and how he interacted with other people… He said some things that were kind of concerning,” the classmate said. “You know, obviously, we’re using guns in a school setting so you need to be very careful in that regard.”
The student said Crooks "made some crass jokes that weren’t appropriate when there are firearms in the school setting," but did not elaborate on what the jokes were.
