A Pennsylvania gun enthusiast has revealed that he practiced shooting with former President Trump’s would-be assassin just weeks before the 20-year-old opened fire at a campaign rally.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks and US Air Force veteran Bill Jenkins, 63, signed up for the same intermediate handgun – pistol 2 class at the Keystone Shooting Center in Cranberry, Pennsylvania on June 22.
It was just the two of them in the course, when Crooks reportedly blew a large hole in a target with a volley of precision rounds from his own 9mm handgun.
‘I was sitting next to evil,’ Jenkins told The Sun. ‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
‘This guy killed a man with a wife and kids, and almost plunged the country into chaos by killing Donald Trump.’
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, had practiced shooting at a gun range just weeks before he opened fire at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally
When he first met Crooks, Jenkins said he could tell ‘this kid was confident with guns.
‘When we went to the range, he started shooting right away,’ he said of Crooks.
‘It seemed like he had experience with weapons.’
Jenkins went on to note that when they were practicing shooting a target at 10 yards away, Crooks ‘blew a big hole right through the centerpiece.
‘I congratulated him on how good he’d done and he just laughed.’
Crooks, Jenkins and their instructor then returned to the classroom, when, Jenkins said, the conversation became political.
‘It turns out the instructor and I are Trump supporters,’ he recounted.
‘We talked about how our country was good under Trump. Our borders were secure, the economy was strong, we were energy-independent, and he got things done.
‘I noticed at the time that the kid wasn’t saying anything one way or another, but I could see him smirking. He had a little smile.’
US Air Force veteran Bill Jenkins recounted how Crooks ‘blew a big hole right through the centerpiece’ of a target 10 yards away
Jenkins said he didn’t think anything of it at the time, believing Crooks was just quiet but overall a ‘nice kid.’
‘Looking back, I think he was biting his tongue,’ he said in the aftermath of the July 13 shooting. ‘Nothing we discussed will have sat well with him.
‘It’s crossed my mind – did that conversation help to push him over the edge?’ Jenkins asked, rhetorically, as a motive for the shooting remains unclear.
‘It freaks me out a little, because a person has died,’ he noted, referring to ex-firefighter Corey Comperatore.
Jenkins said he did not realize for a few days that the man he trained with was the same one who shot Trump on July 13
For a few days, Jenkins said he did not realize that the man who opened fire at the Trump rally was the same one he had trained with just weeks before.
‘It was only when the Pittsburgh field office of the FBI called me on Tuesday, while I was driving, and asked me about the class at Keystone that I found out.
‘The guy said, “The other person in the class with you was the assailant who shot Trump, and I just flipped out,”‘ he recounted.
‘Once I looked at the pictures, I could see it was him.’
He recounted that the FBI agents asked him whether Crooks had a bag with him – which Jenkins said he did.
‘I was sitting next to real evil there, it really scares me,’ Jenkins added. ‘He could have shot us in the range.
‘He tried to plunge the country into chaos. Maybe that’s what his motive was – he wanted to start a real catastrophe in this country.’
Crooks struck Trump in the ear and killed a retired firefighter at the Pennsylvania rally
Crooks arrived to Trump’s rally three hours before opening fire – sparking the suspicion of the Secret Service because he was carrying a rangefinder used by hunters to take long shots.
Law enforcement even took a photo of Crooks an hour before the shooting.
But he was never stopped or questioned.
Crooks was later able to climb onto the roof of the building just over 100 yards away, in direct view of some of the rally-goers – who tried to alert police to the figure crawling on the roof clutching a rifle.
‘We noticed a guy army-crawling, bear-crawling, up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away,’ Greg Smith told the BBC. ‘We could clearly see a rifle.
‘We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we’re like “Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle”. . . and the police did not know what was going on.’
Smith said he tried to alert authorities, but thought they could not see the gunman because of the slope of the roof.
‘I’m thinking to myself “Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage”. . . the next thing you know, five shots ring out’, he said.
Crooks then shot Trump and killed retired volunteer fire chief Comperatore, before being killed by authorities at the scene.
Crooks was shot dead by local authorities after he opened fire from a nearby roof
Trump has since revealed that ‘nobody mentioned’ Crooks to him, despite the fact that he was being monitored for ‘an hour’ before the shooting.
‘Mistakes were made,’ Fox News’ Jesse Watters told Trump. ‘They were monitoring this guy for an hour beforehand. No one told you not to take the stage?’
‘Nobody mentioned it,’ the former president replied. ‘Nobody said it was a problem.’
‘[They] could’ve said, “Let’s wait for 15, 20 minutes, five minutes.” Nobody said…I think that was a mistake,’ he added.
Trump, along with the rest of the United States, later questioned how Crooks could have possibly made it onto the roof to begin with.
‘How did somebody get on that roof?’ Trump questioned. ‘And why wasn’t he reported, because people saw he was on that roof.’
Trump revealed that security agents were alerted that someone was on the roof with a gun before he even walked out on stage – and did not stop him from doing so.
‘When you have Trumpers screaming, the woman in the red shirt, ‘There’s a man on the roof,’ and other people, ‘There’s a man on the roof and who’s got a gun,’…that was quite a bit before I walked on the stage. And I would’ve thought someone would’ve done something about it,’ Trump said.
Trump was left with a minor injury from the shooting – but the result could have been far worse if he had not, at the very last minute, turned his head slightly.
Questions remain about how Crooks was able to climb onto the roof without any law enforcement stopping him
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle has been summoned to testify about the department’s response before a committee of the US House of Representatives on Monday, as she faces calls to resign or face the sack.
Meanwhile, questions remain about Crooks’ motive.
He was a registered Republican and had been described as classmates as a definite conservative, yet he donated money to a progressive movement in 2021.
A review of his phone showed the would-be assassin had searched for information prior to the searching of Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland – and Princess of Wales Kate Middleton.
Dr Craig Hands, a psychologist in California, told DailyMail.com that while antidepressants may be linked to homicidal behavior, major depression is the likely culprit
He also looked up major depressive disorder, with doctors now saying he fits the standard model of a mass shooter.
Crooks was believed to have felt disenfranchised and invisible and sought a sort of immortality through his violent actions.
Dr Craig Hands, a clinical psychologist in California, told DailyMail.com: ‘In the case of the shooter, I can only surmise, in many ways, from what I’ve heard, he fits a common profile.
‘Indeed it may be likely, I don’t know that he was depressed, but that may have contributed to his actions.
‘This depression creates isolation… there is kind of a burning ember kind of depression that’s associated with internal rage against oneself, and rage against the machine as it were. Rage against the world.’
Major depressive disorder is a clinical diagnosis that causes a persistent feeling of deep sadness, hopelessness, loss in interest in activities, low energy, poor or increased appetite, concentration changes, suicidal ideations and behavior.
Dr Hands added: ‘Typically the depression is criticism and rage towards oneself, self-hatred.
‘I have to underscore the term hatred, hatred for oneself, but oftentimes, or sometimes, that hatred gets projected out externally.’
A 2015 Oxford University study of about 47,000 people in Sweden both with and without depression found that those with depression were about three times more likely than the general population to commit a violent crime, such as homicide, aggravated assault, or robbery.
Yet it remains unclear whether Crooks had been diagnosed with the condition, which affects around 17 million adults in the US.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk