His job was to care for sick people
Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old shooter who tried to neutralize former US President Donald Trump, has not left the pages of the American press. Journalists are finding out more and more details of the young man’s biography, one of which is truly frightening and amazing.
Recall that Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the former president with an AR-style rifle from a rooftop 130 yards from the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. Trump was wounded in the ear and required medical attention, but the injury turned out to be minor and the life of the presidential contender is not in danger.
After all that happened, people who knew Crooks personally from his time in school began to willingly share your memories of the guy with journalists.
According to the captain of the school's rifle team, Frederick Mach, Crooks tried out for the team but was not accepted because he was a poor shot.
Former team member Jonathan Myers, who was on the team at the time of the screening. to the staff» by Thomas Crookes, noted that at that time there was something sinister in the young man. «Not only did he not make the team, he was asked not to come back because he was a bad shot and it was considered dangerous,» Myers told ABC News.
His classmate Jameson Murphy added: «He tried out and turned out to be such a comically bad shot that he couldn't make the team and left after the first day.»
Murphy told the New York Post that Crooks once took a shot that missed him by nearly 20 feet. Crooks once fired from the seventh lane — the closest lane to the right wall — and hit the left wall, missing all the targets on the back wall.
Other team members said Crooks made inappropriate jokes and generally behaved badly .
“We noticed several things that Thomas was saying and the way he was interacting with other people… He was saying some things that were quite disturbing. He made several crude jokes that were inappropriate when there were firearms in the school, his classmates said.
Crooks is known to have worked as a nutritionist's assistant at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where he provided food and care to elderly and sick people discharged from the hospital.
His employer confirmed on Sunday that Thomas' background was impeccable and he «carried out his job without fear.» Crooks' uncle, Mark Crooks, told the Daily Mail that he had not seen the shooter or his parents for years. , and described them as “very private”: “I haven’t seen that side of my family for years. Honestly, it's been so long that I don't think about them often. It's a shame. This child is like a stranger to me. They are private and never contact anyone.»
It is noteworthy that at the time of the attack, Thomas Crooks was wearing clothing advertising one of the popular YouTube channels about firearms.
Crooks had no criminal history, according to Pennsylvania public court records, and authorities said they were still working to determine a motive for the shooting.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 and the same year. received a $500 «star award» from the National Math and Science Initiative, The Tribune-Review in western Pennsylvania reported.
Rep. Ronny Jackson said his nephew was shot and killed in an assassination attempt Trump.
Jackson, who was Trump and President Barack Obama's White House physician, said he helped his nephew and friend get a seat in the friends and family section near the stage at the Butler rally.
“They heard shots and they all fell to the ground and… he was shot in the neck, the bullet went through his neck and he was bleeding. This is my nephew. They were there. I set them up. They went to the rally,” Jackson lamented on Fox News.