Entertainment
School insists Trump shooter wasn’t bullied
A high school counselor from Pennsylvania insists Donald Trump’s potential murderer, Thomas Matthew Crookswas not bullied by his former classmates, despite reports portraying the shooter as a ‘outcast“who was bullied “mercilessly” at school, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The motive behind the assassination attempt remains a mystery days after Crooks, 20, was shot dead by Secret Service at Trump’s rally on Saturday, July 13.
As the FBI investigated this week, several people who knew Crooks from Bethel Park High — which is in a suburb about 50 miles north of Butler — have spoken about their memories of the shooter during their time at school together.
In recent interviews, several of Crooks’ former classmates claimed he was “mocked” for his fashion choices. Mason Ripley, 18, who recalled seeing Crooks in the hallways of school, told the outlet, “He looked normal. Sometimes he would wear hunting gear, like camouflage, which was a little weird.”
Another former Bethel Park High student, Sarah D’Angelo, claimed the shooter had “few friends” and spent his breaks playing video games instead of socializing.
D’Angelo continued, “There were some people who were more violent at school. He wasn’t one of those kids.”
Another former student confirmed to NBC that Crooks would “sit alone at lunch” and called him “an outcast” who was “bullied so much.”
The student continued, “You know how kids are, they’re going to focus on him because they think it’s funny. It’s kind of sad to be honest, I don’t want to say that’s the trigger, but you never know.”
But retired school counselor Jim Knapp — who worked at Bethel Park High for 30 years — spoke up The American sun he didn’t remember Crooks as a loner who was bullied. Instead, he remembered the student, who will graduate in 2022, as “a quiet young man” who “had a small group of friends.”
Knapp said Crooks “mainly kept to himself,” but added, “I can assure you he was not bullied.” He explained that Crooks would be having lunch alone because his friends had different schedules.
The teacher continued, “Every day I would walk through the lunchrooms and I always made it a point to go to any child who was sitting alone to make sure they were comfortable or to see if they wanted to interact to have. And in Thomas’ case, he always said, “Hey, Mr. Knapp. I’m doing well, it’s good to see you,” and then I’d move on. But he was fine.”
Knapp said the school “took bullying and mental health very seriously and they were very proactive in trying to stop that type of behavior … So unless it was happening in his home or on the internet, Thomas was certainly not being bullied.”
As Radar previously reported, the FBI found explosives during a search of the gunman’s home in Bethel Park, and the agency said it was investigating Saturday’s incident as an “assassination attempt” and “potential domestic terrorism.”
