- A 20-year-old man shot Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing a rallygoer.
- A former classmate said the shooter was a poor shot and had been kicked off his high school shooting team.
- “He was asked not to come back because of his poor shooting,” the classmate told ABC News.
The 20-year-old man who shot former President Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday was a bad shooter, his former classmate said.
Jameson Myers, who said he attended elementary and high school with the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, spoke to ABC News after the shooting, which left one rallygoer dead and two others injured.
Myers told ABC News that Crooks tried to join his high school shooting team but was rejected and told not to try again.
“He wasn’t just kept on the team, he was asked not to come back because of his poor shooting, it was considered dangerous,” Myers said.
Myers graduated in 2022 with Crooks. According to CBS News, Myers was a member of the varsity shooting team at Bethel Park High School. He told CBS that he and Crooks were close in elementary school, but not in high school.
Another anonymous member of the rifle team told ABC News that people thought Crooks “wasn’t really fit” to join them.
“He also shot terribly,” the team member said.
But Myers added that Crooks, who was killed on the scene by Secret Service agents, never acted as a “political revolutionary” and was a “very nice, even lovely guy.”
The shooting team coach declined to answer ABC News’ questions. The school district told the outlet that Crooks “never appeared on a roster” and there was “no record” of him attempting the game.
The FBI confirmed Crook’s identity to Business Insider early Sunday morning.
Crooks was a dietitian assistant at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the center said in a statement obtained by The Hill Sunday. His motives for the attack were unclear at press time.
Outside of school, Crooks was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a club with several pistol and rifle shooting ranges in Clairton, Pennsylvania, CBS News reported.
He used a legally purchased 5.56 AR-style rifle to shoot Trump and the spectator, FBI Pittsburgh Field Office Director Kevin Rojek said on a call with reporters Sunday.
Trump was seen taking cover after gunshots rang out at his rally on Saturday. Photographers later captured pictures of Trump standing, raising his fist at the crowd in defiance, with blood streaks on his face.
He was then escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents.
The top of his ear was pierced by the bullet, Trump wrote in a post Sunday on Truth Social. In an interview with the New York Post Sunday, he said he was lucky to be alive.
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump said.
“By luck or by God, many people say it is thanks to God that I am still here,” he added.
He also told the Post he thought Secret Service agents did a “fantastic job” in taking down the shooter.
News Source : www.businessinsider.com
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