From Honor Student to the Gunman Who Tried to Kill Donald Trump

The New York Times | Yahoo ^ | July 20, 2024 | By Emily Cochrane

[Oldeconomybuyer]

BETHEL PARK, Pa. — For Thomas Crooks, the suburban Pittsburgh nursing home where he served meals and washed dishes for $16 an hour was another solitary corner of a nearly invisible life. He was polite but distant, a former co-worker said, ate lunch alone in the break room and rarely spoke with anyone.

But as western Pennsylvania geared up last week for the boisterous spectacle of hosting a rally for former President Donald Trump, Crooks approached his bosses with a request, law enforcement officials said: He wanted to take Saturday off.

He told them he had something important to do.

It was one of the few hints to emerge so far that the 20-year-old engineering sciences graduate was planning to become a political assassin. A week after Crooks opened fire at the rally and was killed by the Secret Service, his ideology and motives remain a vexing question for investigators and the people who crossed paths with him.

In dozens of interviews, former classmates, teachers and neighbors said they still could not square their memories of Crooks — an awkward, intelligent teenager who liked to tinker with computers and spent his weekends playing video games — with the image of the stringy-haired gunman at the rally, armed with his father’s AR-15-style rifle as he clambered onto a rooftop and took aim at the former president.

[Honorary Serb]

He should have forgotten his crazy assassin plans, and attended the University of Pittsburgh ( a Public Ivy runner-up)!

And as an honors engineering student, he had no business working in a nursing home! Too bad!

[caww]

Could be a matter of financing? or possibly fear of yet another effort to fit in failure?

[BradyLS]

More than anything else, I think the adults in his life—his parents and teachers—let him down by cramming his skull with BS about Trump and MAGA supporters. The media also deserve special condemnation for supporting and creating the atmosphere of hate in the public square by upwards of half of the adult population for Donald J. Trump.

[piasa]

Speaking of the University of Pittsburgh:

htt’Get out now’: Violence erupts at the University of Pittsburgh over Michael Knowles event
Campus Reform ^ | 20 Apr 2023 | Gabrielle M Etzel
Posted on 4/20/2023, 10:17:47 AM by Rummyfan

Demonstrators threw flares at attendees trying to enter the building and lit an incendiary device outside of the venue.

Violent protest against Michael Knowles and Brad Polumbo shuts down streets in Pittsburgh.

Violent protests erupted in the heart of Western Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening as student activists attempted to shut down a debate at the University of Pittsburgh between political commentators Michael Knowles and Brad Polumbo concerning transgender rights.

The event was hosted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Pitt College Republicans.

Campus Reform has covered the turmoil connected to other conservative speakers at the university, including Cabot Phillips and Riley Gaines, but the Executive Director of Media Relations Chuck Finder told Campus Reform that Tuesday’s outraged crowd was not only larger and more aggressive than those at the Phillips and Gaines events, but was also more extreme than anticipated.

(Excerpt) Read more at campusreform.org

[Zhang Fei]

[Could be a matter of financing? or possibly fear of yet another effort to fit in failure?]

---

His parents are said, by the neighbors, to have been very private. That seems like code for recluses, hermits, even. I can’t help thinking things would have been different if he had, for instance, been brought up by better, more attentive and outgoing parents. You get cases where normal parents can’t handle kids who seemed satanic from day one. This seems like a normal, if awkward kid failed by oddball parents.

[piasa]

Humanized Mice Horror at University of Pittsburgh (CAUTION: Graphic Images)
2/12/2022, 6:11:26 PM · by surroundedbyblue · 24 replies
www.fetalindustry.com ^ | 2/10/2022 | Julie Collorafi

University Admits Harvesting Kidneys From Unborn Babies While Their Hearts are Still Beating
8/5/2021, 10:18:58 PM · by bitt · 54 replies
lifenews.com ^ | 8/5/2021 | Micaiah Bilger

University of Pittsburgh scientists discover antibody that ‘neutralizes’ virus that causes coronavirus
9/15/2020, 12:29:39 AM · by bitt · 13 replies
fox news ^ | 9/14/2020 | Alexandra Deabler
Pitt researcher studying coronavirus killed in suspected murder-suicide in Ross Township
5/4/2020, 9:39:05 PM · by surroundedbyblue · 43 replies
WTAE ^ | 05/04/2020

[Salman]

Honor student? I’m pretty sire he was a white guy.

[bitt]

P

[McCarthysGhost]

In the movie Zero Dark Thirty, it was mentioned that The CIA recruits some people out of high school. You gotta wonder.

[caww]

Well he was an introvert by personality I think....often they are loners and content being so...so it takes a crow bar to get them to share their problems.

[Candor7]

Crooks was a kid who developed a small man syndrome. I am surprised he did not have a Big Motorcycle,if he did he likely would still be alive. Instead he became an assassin and exercised his small man syndome for his own death....
So he received a hole in his head above his left eyebrow.....

BUt was he the only shooter?

Preliminary acoustic data:

“Audio Analysis is Clear…Trump & Crowd were shot by two separate People”

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4252705/posts

And he had to have had help according to the worlds best sniper:

“And yesterday what happened, I have no doubts in my mind that the shooter had help from somewhere within an agency, an organization, or the government,” Alexander stated firmly. “

https://nypost.com/2024/07/15/us-news/veteran-sniper-weighs-in-on-trump-assassination-attempt/