No evidence gunman in Trump rally shooting was bullied, high school says | Donald Trump Pennsylvania rally shooting

The high school from which the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump graduated has claimed it has no evidence backing up ex-students’ assertions that the shooter was ruthlessly bullied on campus – or that its rifle team rejected him from joining because of his poor aim.

Yet the statement released on Saturday by Pennsylvania’s Bethel Park high school stopped well short of saying that it could disprove the recollections of the would-be assassin’s former schoolmates.

Bethel high’s remarks came after 2022 graduate Thomas Matthew Crooks perched on the roof of a bottle manufacturing plant in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and tried to shoot Trump with a rifle while the former president spoke at a nearby rally on 13 July.

A US Secret Service sniper shot Crooks, 20, to death after the attempt on Trump’s life left the Republican presidential nominee with a wound to his ear, according to the agency. One rally-goer was also killed, and two other spectators were injured.

The shocking episode thrust Crooks’ life under global scrutiny, prompting a number of his schoolmates at Bethel Park high school to come forward and share what they remembered about their fellow former student.

One told several media outlets that Crooks’s penchant for wearing “hunting” and “military” clothes – as well as eating alone at lunch – attracted derision from his companions, who dismissed him as a “loner” and an “outcast”.

“It’s honestly kind of sad,” 21-year-old Jason Kohler said. “He was bullied so much.”

Another Bethel high alum, Jameson Myers, separately told ABC News that Crooks failed to secure a spot on the school rifle team roster despite trying out due to “how bad of a shot he was” – which became relevant given his role in the Trump assassination attempt.

Another schoolmate – Jameson Murphy – told the New York Post that Crooks was “a comically bad shot”.

“It was considered, like, dangerous,” Myers said to ABC.

But on Saturday, Bethel high’s statement argued it was “a painful misconception that Thomas Crooks was relentlessly bullied in school”, if its own records are to be believed.

“According to our records, Mr Crooks excelled academically, regularly attended school and had no disciplinary incidents, including those related to bullying,” the school’s statement said.

Noting that he had obtained an associate’s degree in engineering science from a local community college and had been employed as a nursing home dietary aide, the statement added: “Mr Crooks was known as a quiet, bright young man who generally got along with his teachers and classmates.”

Meanwhile, Bethel Park high’s statement said the school’s rifle team coach “does not recall meeting” Crooks.

“It is possible that Crooks informally attended a practice, took a shot and never returned,” the school’s statement said. Yet “we don’t have any record of that happening”.

Authorities as of Sunday had not pinpointed a definitive motive for the Trump rally shooting, which Crooks carried out with a rifle that reportedly had been previously bought legally by his father.

But they have gotten a clearer idea of Crooks’s preparations. They reportedly included buying ammunition earlier on the day of the shooting as well as flying a camera-equipped drone on a programmed path over the rally site, which was about an hour’s drive north of Bethel Park.