A classmate of Thomas Matthew Crooks speaks

A shooting left one person dead and two others injured Saturday at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania. The suspected shooter, identified by federal authorities as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by gunmen from the U.S. Secret Service.

Vincent Taormina, who met Crooks in middle school and knew him through high school, described him as a fairly intelligent kid, sometimes a little cocky.

Taormina says Crooks had his circle of friends and was never really a loner or super quiet.

He does, however, recall an argument with Crooks in eighth grade, around 2018, two years into Donald Trump’s presidency.

“I said something about Trump and, you know, I went through all the pros and cons and said I thought he was doing really well compared to what we thought he was,” Taormina said. “And that’s when Thomas said to me, ‘Well, aren’t you Hispanic?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘And you like Trump?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s kind of stupid, right?’”

“He wasn’t a partisan of any particular politician, as far as I know. As far as I know, he hated all politicians. He hated, I wouldn’t say government per se, but he certainly didn’t like our politicians and our pool of choices for politicians.”

Taormina said Crooks was chosen because of his looks or his nerd status — comments here and there — but overall, he said he never thought Crooks would do something like this.

School sources say News Spectrum 1 Crooks was a polite student who didn’t really have any problems with people.