A former classmate says Thomas Crooks was rejected by his high school's rifle team.
The shooter in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He graduated high school two years ago and his former fellow classmates say he kept to himself.
Fellow student Jason Kohler says Crooks was rejected by the school rifle team.
"My brother was on the rifle team. He said that Thomas had tried out for the team, he just didn't make it because he had a bad shot," Kohler says.
Crooks' aim was "comically bad," according to one report.
Former classmate Sarah D'Angelo says Crooks studied the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in honors American history class.
"You kind of had to make your own conspiracy theory about where the shooter was and how you thought it was done," D'Angelo tells Inside Edition.
Crooks was said to have been bullied at school. He sat by himself in the cafeteria at lunch.
"Based on the way he dressed, you know how kids are nowadays. If you didn't fit in with the clique, they're going to come after you. That's kind of how he was," Kohler says. "He would sit by himself, play games on his computer."
Kohler says Crooks also wore an anti-COVID mask long after they were required.
The high school yearbook lists Crooks as "not pictured."
Crooks graduated from community college in May with an associate's degree in engineering science. He found work as a dietary aide at a nursing home after passing a background check.
The neighborhood where Crooks lived with his family has been blocked off with crime scene tape. Neighbors tell Inside Edition the family kept to themselves.
"All I have heard is that there was a very reclusive family and they didn't really talk to people, so people that live around here, around them, don't really know them," neighbor Lynn Phillips says.
Crooks' parents work as counselors.
The motive for firing at Trump remains a mystery. Crooks was a registered Republican and donated $15 to a progressive group.
When Crooks was taken down by a Secret Service sniper, he was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel that features firearms.
Authorities say they found "rudimentary" explosive devices in Crooks' car and at his home.
The FBI is currently searching the 20-year-old's phone for clues to a motive.
