Trump shooter Thomas Crooks was not a member of rifle team, wasn’t bullied despite previous reports, school claims

Failed Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ high school further deepened the mystery surrounding the disturbed shooter’s teen years Saturday when officials denied allegations that he tried out for its rifle team, was bullied and threatened to shoot up the school years before carrying out his sinister plot.

Bethel Park High School “has no record” of Crooks, 20, trying out for the school’s rifle team, it said in an updated statement Saturday .

“The coach does not recall meeting him. However, it is possible that Crooks informally attended a practice, took a shot, and never returned,” the statement read.

“We don’t have any record of that happening.”

Two former classmates told The Post this week that Crooks tried out for the rifle squad, but was dismissed due to being a “comically bad” shot and for making concerning comments.

“We noticed a few things Thomas said and how he interacted with other people … He said some things that were kind of concerning,” the classmate claimed.

Officials also went on the record to dispel the “painful misconception” that Crooks was bullied while attending the Bethel Park, Pa.-based high school.

Trump says he wasn’t warned by Secret Service about gunman Thomas Crooks before assassination attempt at Pa. rally

Undated footage that emerged in the days after the shooting appeared to show Crooks being relentlessly taunted by a classroom prankster who refused to stop yanking on his pant leg .

The school, however, claimed it had no record of any bullying incidents involving Crooks.

“According to our records, Mr. Crooks excelled academically, regularly attended school, and had no disciplinary incidents, including those related to bullying or threats,” the statement insisted — noting that the district “maintains detailed records, including academic performance, attendance, disciplinary history, and health records” for students.

Bethel Park slammed allegations that Crooks — who graduated in 2022 — ever threatened violence against the school as was previously reported .

“In 2019, there was an unfortunate incident involving threats made by a different student against specific school administrators. That incident was thoroughly investigated and quickly addressed, and the student involved received appropriate discipline” Bethel Park High School explained.

“It had no connection whatsoever to Thomas Crooks.”

The school’s denials came as rumors continued to swirl about his possible motive for opening fire on the crowd at Trump’s rally in Butler on July 13.

Crooks fired at least six rounds, grazing the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee’s ear and killing former volunteer firefighter and father of two Corey Comperatore, 50, while seriously injuring David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, before the Secret Service shot him dead.

In April, Crooks searched online about major depressive disorder, investigators discovered this week – though there is no evidence he was ever formally diagnosed with the condition.

“One thing may be that he was trying to diagnose himself and could tell that he was having these thoughts or these feelings,” former FBI terrorism task force supervisor Michael McKeown told WTAE of the unearthed searches .

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“And then, unfortunately, instead of getting mental health counseling, he took the other route of violence,” he added.

Crooks’ search history could be part of the first step in what the FBI calls the “ pathway to violence ,” which is known as expressing grievances, McKeown said.

When investigators examined Crooks’ devices, they also found that he made online searches for Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley and his parents, as well Trump, President Biden, 81, and other high-profile political figures .

He had also done target shooting at a nearby gun range that he frequented with his father and appeared to have scouted out the rally location one week ahead of time.

Crooks also allegedly programmed a drone to fly over the Butler Farm Showgrounds hours before his assassination attempt on Trump, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident said, according to the Wall Street Journal .

Investigators believe Crooks flew the remotely piloted aircraft around the site more than once as he mapped out the course of his sinister plot, further adding to the Secret Service’s stunning failure to protect Trump.

He had allegedly programmed the drone to fly over the site on a “predetermined path” to better understand the layout of the rally grounds, according to the WSJ.

A drone was later found in Crooks’ car after he was shot dead when he opened fire on Trump.

The Secret Service reportedly did not use drones themselves to keep a watchful eye over the event.

On the morning of the shooting, Crooks returned to the rally grounds with a rangefinder — seemingly to test how authorities would respond.

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Crooks’ movements in the lead-up to the assassination attempt could be viewed as the research and preparation step by the FBI, McKeown explained.

“They want to test that. Can they face law enforcement or an authority figure before they go on the attack? So they may do something small to test that and then see if it works out,” McKeown said.

Authorities are still trying to parse out Crooks’ motive for scaling the roof of a nearby factory and aiming his father’s AR-15-style rifle just 130 yards from the podium where Trump was addressing supporters.

Some experts have suggested that the shooting could have been the result of a mental health crisis that spiraled out of control.

“I don’t know that he was depressed, but that may have contributed to his actions,” Dr. Craig Hands, a clinical psychologist in California, told the Daily Mail .

“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,” he said.

If Crooks’ ultimate plan was to carry out a mass shooting, he may have been trying to kill “the most visible” people in society who made him feel invisible by comparison, Dr. Rachel Toles, a licensed clinical psychologist, told the outlet.

Medical researcher professor Peter Gøtzsche — who has sparked controversy by claiming psychiatric drugs are damaging for patients — suggested it was “quite possible that he was taking a depression drug, which we know increases the risk of homicide.”

Individuals with depression were about three times more likely than the general population to commit a violent act, according to one 2015 Oxford University study — but more recent analyses emphasized that association is inconsistent.

Only about “5% of mass shootings are related to severe mental illness,” Dr. Ragy Girgis, associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, told the Columbia Psychiatry News in 2022.

Crooks’ apparent lack of ideological convictions makes him similar to John Hinckley Jr ., who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

“It wasn’t necessarily a political ideology. It was more of the notoriety that [Hinckley] wanted to gain for a famous actress. So it was a political figure that was shot, President Reagan, but the ideology wasn’t necessarily political,” McKeown noted.

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