The Pennsylvania man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump during a rally on Saturday joined his high school rifle team but was rejected for his “terrible” shooting skills and telling “vulgar” jokes.
Crooks, 20, opened fire with an AR-style rifle at the Butler Farm Show, killing one Trump hero and wounding two others, but leaving the former president with only a graze wound before being shot dead by Secret Service agents.
Several years before the assassination attempt, Crooks tried out for Bethel Park High School’s rifle team, two former classmates told The Post.
The Bethel Park team fires Anschutz single-shot rifles equipped with peep sights and .22-caliber ammunition, explained Jameson Murphy and another former student.
The school’s shooting range is 50 feet long and 21 feet wide and has seven shooting ranges.
Crooks once fired from lane seven, closest to the right wall, hit the left wall, and completely missed all the targets on the back wall. He missed his target by nearly 20 feet, Murphy recalled.
“He had a tryout, but he didn’t make the team because he shot the ball so badly, and he left on the first day,” Murphy said.
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Described as a lone student who would come to class in hunting gear, Crooks “couldn’t shoot at all. He was a bad shot,” the second classmate added.
Even the coaches had concerns about Crooks, they continued.
“Our old coach was strict and he trained Navy shooters so he knew people well. He knew when someone wasn’t the best,” the former classmate explained.
“I noticed some things Thomas said and some interactions he had with others … he said some things that were a bit concerning,” the classmate said.
“You know, we have guns in schools, so we have to be very careful about that.”
“He made vulgar jokes that were inappropriate in the context of a firearm being present at a school,” they said, without elaborating on what exactly Crooks said.
