{"id":2299181,"date":"2024-07-18T09:54:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thomas-matthew-crooks-classmate-drops-bomb-on-media-says-signs-were-there-years-before-attack-not-severely-bullied\/"},"modified":"2024-07-18T09:54:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T13:54:59","slug":"classmate-of-thomas-matthew-crooks-reveals-warning-signs-before-attack-denies-severe-bullying-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/classmate-of-thomas-matthew-crooks-reveals-warning-signs-before-attack-denies-severe-bullying-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Classmate of Thomas Matthew Crooks reveals warning signs before attack, denies severe bullying"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fclassmate-of-thomas-matthew-crooks-reveals-warning-signs-before-attack-denies-severe-bullying-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2299181&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The former \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/opinion-desantis-derangement-syndrome-is-spreading\/\" title=\"OPINION: \u2018DeSantis Derangement Syndrome\u2019 Is Spreading\">high school classmate<\/a> \u2063of Thomas Crooks recalled his contempt\u2063 for former President\u2063 Donald Trump\u2064 years \u200cbefore the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hundreds-of-cute-small-animals-adopted-by-arizona-group-but-joy-turns-to-horror-when-humane-society-realizes-what-its-job-is\/\" title=\"Hundreds of Cute Small Animals Adopted by Arizona Group, But Joy Turns to Horror When Humane Society Realizes What Its Job Is\">recent incident\u2062 involving<\/a> an attempt on Trump&#8217;s life. Crooks\u2064 was described \u200bas a &#8220;know-it-all&#8221; who disagreed\u2063 with his Hispanic\u2063 classmate&#8217;s \u200dsupport\u200d for Trump. Taormina mentioned\u200c that Crooks and his friends were often disruptive and made threats, including one incident \u200bwhere\u2062 the school was\u200d believed to \u200dbe targeted for a\u2062 shooting. Despite Crooks not fitting the media narrative of a victim in high school, Taormina expressed concern that\u2063 someone\u2062 should have noticed\u200d warning signs and taken action before the incident occurred.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section>\n<p>A former high school classmate of Thomas Crooks said the young man who tried to kill former President Donald Trump showed contempt for Trump years before Saturday&rsquo;s rally.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I brought up the fact that I&rsquo;m Hispanic and, you know, I&rsquo;m for Trump. And he said, &lsquo;Well, you&rsquo;re Hispanic, so shouldn&rsquo;t you hate Trump?&#8217;&rdquo; Vincent Taormina told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/former-classmate-recalls-trump-shooter-grilling-him-over-support-former-potus-did-not-like-politicians\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a>&nbsp; Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And I was like, no. He&rsquo;s great. He&rsquo;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/so-much-for-bringing-dogs-back-to-the-white-house\/\" title=\"So Much For Bringing Dogs Back To The White House\">great president<\/a>. He called me stupid &ndash; or insinuated that I was, like, well, that&rsquo;s kinda stupid.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He said Crooks was &ldquo;a know-it-all.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">JUST IN: Former Thomas Crooks classmate says Crooks was a known Trump hater and was a &ldquo;know it all.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The FBI still doesn&rsquo;t know what Crooks&rsquo; motive could have been.<\/p>\n<p>Hispanic classmate Vincent Taormina recalled a political disagreement he had with Crooks after he told him that&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LzgnohInnw\">pic.twitter.com\/LzgnohInnw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1813652097533112374?\">July 17, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>  <script> \t\t\t\tif( ! getCookie( 'ff_subbed' ) ) if( typeof FFADS.replace_ict !='undefined' ) if( FFADS.replace_ict ) eval( FFADS.replace_ict ); \t\t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Taormina said their discussion about Trump took place in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He just did not like politicians, especially with the choices that we had,&rdquo; Taormina said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He did not like our politicians,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Taormina said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/report-parents-trump-shooter-alerted-police-hours-attack-worried\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crooks<\/a> was only silent when he felt like being so.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If he was passionate about something, he would just talk, talk, talk and act like he knew everything, especially politics related, and he would say it in a tone that was like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m better than you,&rsquo; in a type of way,&rdquo; Taormina said.<\/p>\n<p>Crooks was &ldquo;real smug, arrogant, whenever he was talking. And whether that was his way to try to make friends or be funny, I don&rsquo;t know, but it got under my skin a lot,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Taormina called the friends who hung out with Crooks &ldquo;out there.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Some of them didn&rsquo;t even show up to school. Some of them went home school,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They were definitely the type, and they did, make threats to shoot up our school,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the incident happened his freshman year in high school.<\/p>\n<p>He recalled &ldquo;everyone going through Snapchat, like everybody&rsquo;s texting, everybody, you know, saying this or that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Everybody was saying it was Thomas who made the threat and it was that friend group. Everyone was mainly blaming the friend group, but a name that kept coming up was Thomas. And he never did anything, you know what I mean? He left school for a couple of days. It wasn&rsquo;t anything like a suspension or anything. It was just a couple of days, you know,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Social media is so frustrating from conspiracy theories to people trying to get famous. This<br \/> Is Thomas Matthew Crooks ( not the other guy claiming to be him). This confusion only hurts the investigation and swirls into conspiracy. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ThomasMathewCrooks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThomasMathewCrooks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ozTMrcPMGZ\">pic.twitter.com\/ozTMrcPMGZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; michelle archer (@drdsat) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drdsat\/status\/1812542107338387749?\">July 14, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He pushed back against the media narrative of Crooks as suffering in high school.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He was not severely bullied. Almost nobody knew,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Taormina said someone should have known what Crooks was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/secret-service-director-allegedly-told-keep-quiet-mistake-roof-trump-shooter-bongino\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The signs were there,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Somebody should have known, because he was not a loner,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And both of his parents being counselors, how do you not see that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-already-struggling-on-international-stage-as-expert-warns-he-may-be-making-middle-east-war-worse\/\" title=\"Biden Already Struggling On International Stage As Expert Warns He May Be Making Middle East War Worse\">warning sign<\/a>?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Everybody, anybody who knew him &hellip; should have seen something, should have known something was up&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I know it&rsquo;s kind of easy to hide, but people are going to get their affairs in order before they do something this bold and this drastic, and nobody saw it. And why?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\">  <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> <label>* Name<\/label> <br \/> <input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> <\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> <label>* <\/label> <br \/> <input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> <\/div>\n<p> <label>* Message<\/label> <br \/> <textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> <input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\">  <\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script>  <\/div>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\">  <\/div>\n<style> \t\t\t \t\t\t.insticator-unit.type-commenting{margin: 0 10px 25px 10px}@media screen and (max-width:1060px){#div-insticator-ad-cmt-1, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-2, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-3, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-4{margin: 0 auto 25px auto !important;}}#div-insticator-ad-cmt-1, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-2, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-3, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-4{height: 280px !important; width: 336px !important} \t\t<\/style>\n<div class=\"insticator-unit type-commenting\">\n<div class=\"insticator-ads\">   <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\t\t\tif ( ! getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-1\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-2\"); \t\t\t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-1\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-2\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t<\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"insticator-ads additional\">   <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\t\t\tif ( ! getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-3\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-4\"); \t\t\t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-3\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-4\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t<\/script> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former classmate of Thomas Crooks from high school mentioned that Crooks had shown disdain for Donald Trump years before the recent incident. The classmate, Vincent Taormina, recalled a conversation they had in 2016 where Crooks made derogatory remarks about Trump. Taormina described Crooks as a know-it-all who was vocal about his opinions, especially when it came to politics. He also mentioned that Crooks had a group of friends who were considered troublesome and had made threats in the past. Taormina disputed the idea that Crooks was severely bullied in high school and believed that someone should have noticed warning signs of his violent intentions. He expressed frustration that nobody seemed to have picked up on these signs before the incident occurred<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2299182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Crooks-vs-Taormina.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4002,22423,35446,34981,35445],"class_list":["post-2299181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-attack","tag-classmate","tag-severe-bullying","tag-thomas-matthew-crooks","tag-warning-signs"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Crooks-vs-Taormina.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2299182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}