BETHAL PARK, Pa. – A former classmate of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks says the 20-year-old gunman was quiet with a small friend group, noting that she would never have pegged him for his actions at the Trump rally.
Sarah D’Angelo, a nursing student, shared with Fox News Digital her scant interactions with Crooks as the pair attended school together for eight years and shared a homeroom classroom at Bethel Park High School.
D’Angelo painted a portrait of Crooks’ personality, interests and perception at the school.
“He had a small friend group,” D’Angelo said. “He wasn’t a loner but was not the most popular kid in the class.”
“It’s shocking to hear someone from your high school, that you knew, would do something as tragic as that,” she said. “I honestly originally thought it was a relative, because I heard Thomas, and he never went by that. He went by Tom or Tommy.”
The classmate said they were supposed to attend Trump’s rally at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, but they decided against it at the last minute.
“It’s sad, and I was so nauseous on Sunday hearing about it because you don’t think something like that would happen so close,” D’Angelo said. “I don’t want to speak for all of us, but we just really want to move on from this.”
D’Angelo reiterated what other classmates and residents have shared, saying their town of 33,000 does not want this incident to define their town.
“This is a community, a close community that is family-oriented,” she said. “We’re good American citizens, and Bethel High School is really close.”
“This experience just did not seem to add up to happen in Bethel Park,” she said. “Our hearts go out to the families that were affected in this.”
