Shocked classmates recall Tom Crooks, Trump’s ‘terribly silent’ shooter

Before firing the shots heard around the country, Thomas Matthew Crooks barely made a sound.

Two former classmates of 20-year-old Tom Crooks told TPM they were shocked when he was identified as the gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. According to Crooks’ classmates, before the incident, the man they knew as “Tom” wasn’t someone who made a big impression.

“He was awfully quiet. Nothing more,” Michael Dudjak, who graduated from Bethel Park High School in Pennsylvania with Crooks in 2022, told TPM in a phone conversation Sunday afternoon. “He never stood out — like if you saw him in a crowd of people at school, you wouldn’t think he was anything other than a regular kid.”

The FBI identified Crooks as the suspected shooter early Sunday morning, about six hours after a hail of bullets killed one rallygoer, wounded two others and left Trump’s ear bleeding. Law enforcement shot and killed the shooter moments after the shots rang out. According to The New York Times, a source familiar with the investigation said authorities found “materials that could be used to make two explosive devices” in Crooks’ car and “believe they may have found a third at his home.”

Dudjak said he and Crooks’ other classmates were surprised when he was identified as the suspect.

“It was really, really shocking. I was with five other people that we graduated with. We were all in the same class as Tom, and it was really shocking,” Dudjak said. “None of us could express what we felt. We were all together and it got really quiet. We couldn’t believe it – it was just shocking.”

Their reaction was a more intimate version of the uncertainty and horror that gripped the nation over the weekend. For years, political violence and divisions have escalated as Trump lashed out at his political enemies and tried unsuccessfully to cling to power, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The shooting appeared to be a clear sign that those long-simmering tensions are boiling over again as Trump engages in a fierce reelection campaign against his successor, President Joe Biden.

In U.S. history, there have been a dozen other assassination attempts on presidents and presidential candidates. Four presidents have died from gunshot wounds.

The magnitude of the assassination attempt on Trump — and the highly polarized climate in which it occurred — has left many searching for answers. While law enforcement has so far not announced a motive, some Trump allies have blamed Biden and other Democrats for the shooting. Relatively little is known about Crooks, and the few details that have emerged about his life don’t yet fit a clear political narrative. The alleged shooter was reportedly wearing a T-shirt from “Demolition Ranch,” a popular gun-related YouTube channel, during the shooting. Public records indicate he was a registered Republican, but campaign finance records show he donated $15 to the Democratic-aligned Progressive Turnout PAC on Jan. 20, 2021, the day of Biden’s inauguration.

Crooks’ classmates probably have more questions than anyone else. Dudjak, who said he was with Crooks “from kindergarten through high school,” said the alleged shooter gave no indication of a strong political orientation.

“There was nothing about his political views. There was no saying, ‘Oh, he’s clearly this or that,'” Dudjak said. “Like I said, he was a quiet kid. Nobody knew exactly what he thought politically.”

Dudjak said that based on a conversation they had in eighth grade, he thought Crooks “liked computers.” Crooks won a math and science award his senior year. According to Dudjak, he helped other students with their assignments.

“We talked here and there in class, like I needed math homework,” Dudjak said. “I know people he gave math homework to.”

Other than that, Dudjak said Crooks remains tight-lipped.

“He was always kind of doing his own thing…if he had a group of outside friends, I didn’t know,” Dudjak explained.

Jason Kohler, another former classmate, told a local news station that Crooks was known for wearing “hunting” clothes and was “relentlessly” bullied at school. Dudjak said the headline-grabbing remarks did not match his memories of Crooks. Aside from “a camo jacket for the winter,” Dudjak said Crooks “always” wore “a T-shirt and blue jeans.” He also does not recall his classmate being bullied.

“I went to school with him for 14 years of my life, or something like that,” Dudjak said. “I had never seen anyone get bullied at Bethel Park High School. … Maybe cyberbullying online, but again, he didn’t have social media. He wasn’t on it. … I don’t think he was bullied. … I could be wrong … but I talked to some of my friends about it, we never saw it or heard of it.”

Another classmate who attended Bethel Park High School with Crooks shared a similar memory in text messages exchanged with TPM. The classmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they “had classes with him all through middle school and high school.”

“We were in the same class at Bethel Park. We were never good friends, but we talked sometimes in class,” the classmate said, adding, “His name was Tom. He was always quiet and shy, but always nice to me. He was shy and didn’t talk about politics in high school. He was very smart and was always in AP and Honors classes with me.”

The classmate said Crooks “had a small group of friends.”

“I never saw any harassment from him. He always wore cargo pants, shorts and a T-shirt,” the classmate said.

“What I remember most about him is that he was always shy and quiet. I remember in middle school, one of our teachers was always encouraging him and trying to get him to come out of his shell.”

Overall, the classmate described Crooks’ identification by law enforcement as the person who attempted to murder him as “very shocking and sad news.”

“I never could have imagined him doing something like that. He’s always been shy and I’ve never seen him be rude,” the classmate said. “I feel like Bethel Park is a really nice community and I was really surprised that someone from BP, let alone Tom, would do something like that.”

For Dudjak, the shock was compounded by Crooks’s unremarkable nature at school.

“He’s definitely someone who’s not remembered, as sad as that is,” Dudjak said, adding, “But I guess now he will be.”