BETHEL 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.”

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The 20-year-old’s political leanings have been a hot topic, with people pointing to his Republican voter registration and others pointing to his $15 campaign donation to a progressive political action committee. 

D’Angelo said Crooks did not reveal his political affiliation in class, even as the classmates shared an American politics class in high school.

“We had [an] American politics class. It was half a year during senior year,” she said. “And he never made any of his political views outward.”

Crooks’ classmate said they shared homeroom together in high school as well as a few classes, including Advanced Placement classes.

“In homeroom, he would play on his computer a lot. He was very into that,” she said. “And he would sit with just a few friends at lunch.”

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D’Angelo said she did not recall Crooks being bullied in high school, adding that there were other people in the school who she thought were “more capable.”

“Maybe other people in the school that I thought would probably more be capable of such a thing, and he’s definitely not one of them, I would think of,” she said. “But it’s also because he didn’t talk to a lot of people. So, you don’t really know what’s going on inside his head.”

Crooks, she described, was a good student and graduated with honors. Bethel High School gave honors students either silver or golden cords representing their educational achievement.

In a photo of his high school graduation, Crooks is seen wearing a silver cord. D’Angelo said the silver cord represented a 3.85 or higher cumulative GPA.

D’Angelo, who was sitting near Crooks during the pair’s high school graduation, recalled her last interaction with the student turned assassin. 

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“He was just a few seats away from me [at the graduation ceremony], D’Angelo said. “I remember talking to him and another kid, just commenting on the day and the length of the ceremony.”

Crooks, his classmate said, was smart and interacted regularly in class discussions.

“He participated as much as a normal person would,” she said. “He was always kind to the people around him.”

D’Angelo said that when she first heard the news of the unsuccessful attempt on the 45th president’s life, she thought it was her classmates’ relative.

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“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.

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“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.”

BETHEL PARK, Pa. – A local GOP volunteer who helped set up and later attended former President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last weekend, said he and other activists raised concerns the night prior about the venue’s security.

Zach Scherer, a volunteer firefighter from Chicora – a short drive northeast of the Butler Farm Show – told Fox News Digital on Wednesday he was also in the third row behind Trump on the risers at the moment the former president was injured and fellow firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed.

“Friday night; I’ll take it back a day — there was a group of us that had volunteered on the Trump campaign to do rally set up, which included setting up the barricades, the stage set-up and other things that were needed to make sure this was a successful event,” Scherer said.

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“We did a walk through at 7 PM on Friday night, and we raised multiple concerns with the state GOP staff about parking, about security issues we saw, where there were a lack of barricades at.”

“And all of our safety concerns that we that we brought up on Friday evening were strictly turned down and there were no answers given to any of our questions or concerns about security in that matter,” he added.

Scherer said he has volunteered for at least 20 other Trump rallies and that whenever security or logistics concerns were brought to party or law enforcement officials, they were rectified by the time the event began.

“We always saw the change in place the day of the rally. And [Butler] was the first one that I saw no changes made from Friday night to Saturday morning when we got there at 7:30 [AM].”

Scherer said the political campaigns’ advance teams often consist of Secret Service agents, paid staff, and state party staff.

When asked further about how volunteers would express such concerns, Scherer said the state party volunteers and workers on-site are typically the point of contact, but it was unclear where in the chain of command the alleged break in communication occurred.

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Fox News Digital reached out to both the Pennsylvania GOP and Pennsylvania State Police for comment. An officer who picked up the phone at the barracks covering Butler County directed Fox News Digital to a lieutenant in the Harrisburg headquarters, where a message was left.

Scherer added the preamble to the rally had an air of “disorganization” to it.

“There were multiple concerns about this venue — that it’s not big enough, that there were too many points of entry … there were too many open rooftops. And, you know, this was all pointed out to the volunteer team, but I’m not sure if it was their lack of concern, or whether that information was ever relayed to the Secret Service or the State Police.“

Four years prior, Trump held a conversely fondly-remembered rally on Halloween in Butler, on a stage bedecked with pumpkins and other autumnal paraphernalia.

Scherer said the other difference between the two events was that the 2020 venue was the Butler airport, which felt much more secure during set-up and the rally itself.

He said he noticed that the airport venue did not have as many entry points and that Secret Service snipers and officers were visible on the two rooftop-type areas he could see from the dais.

He said that when he arrived for setup on Friday, he was able to drive right up to the stage, and that “anybody could have been on those grounds throughout the entire week, planning… other sorts of chaos as this Mr. Crooks had.”

Thomas Crooks, 20, was identified by authorities as the shooter at Saturday’s rally.

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“I just feel that there should have been a higher security throughout the week as well on access to those Farm Show grounds.”

Scherer also spoke about the loss of Corey Comperatore, who he did not know personally, but felt a bond with due to the fact they were both volunteer firefighters in the county.

He spoke to Fox News Digital from outside the vigil for the 50-year-old, who has been hailed a hero for shielding his family from Crooks’ attack.

“That’s one of the things that hits close to home is, you know, we all went to this rally thinking that it’s going to be a fun, energetic time. And unfortunately, you know, Corey lost his life and, all of his brothers and sisters in the fire-service, they’re going to come together tomorrow for a funeral procession,” he said.

“And, you know, it’s just heartbreaking for our community here in Butler County.”

When gunfire erupted Saturday, Scherer recounted seeing Trump “drop” and come up bloodied.

“I instantly went to the ground… and I’m like ‘Dad, you’ve got to get down’,” he said, adding that he pulled his father away from any further gunfire, as he could not immediately figure out where the shots were coming from.

He said the Secret Service then issued an evacuation order, which led to a “landfall of people” pushing to get out of harm’s way.

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“He’s kind.”

Wait. What? Senator J.D. Vance is “kind?”

That is what my guest—podcaster and one of the most influential Republican women in America, Mary Katharine Ham—told me about Vance Wednesday morning. (Her podcast, co-hosted with Vic Matus, “Getting Hammered” is a joy to listen to.)

I first interviewed Senator Vance in 2016 when his book “Hillbilly Elegy” debuted. It is a fabulous book and still a riveting read. Vance was not then in politics. He was a Yale Law grad making his way in Silicon Valley. The story hit close to the hearts of anyone from the abandoned steel and car towns of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

What Mary Katharine revealed to me is not something a radio host could learn over the score of interviews I conducted with Vance over the years since 2016 or during the debate I moderated with him and five other GOP Senate candidates in 2022. I have never spent time with Vance off a real or virtual stage, so I had no idea what he’s like in non-public settings. 

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I asked Mary Katharine to stay an extra segment to explain the “He’s kind” observation. I am a big believer in people from across the political spectrum who act with respect towards everyone regardless of their politics, who display gratitude when no one is looking, who are, indeed, “kind.” Cruelty repels me, even when the objects of cruelty more or less deserve it. This is a product of Catholic education, I am sure, and of the attempt to internalize the wisdom of C.S. Lewis:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

If you have read Vance’s book, you know he knows Lewis’ statement  to be true. Strangers helped Vance often on his journey: The police of Middleton, Ohio; USMC gunny sergeants; Yale Law professors and Silicon Valley giants.  And the marks they have left on him—this kindness that Mary Katharine references, the level-headed manner of his very normal, civil responses to arguments and even deep disagreements I have observed on air and on stage—this is a powerful super-power for politicians who do not assume the role of “nice guy” but who actually live it out. 

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Harry Truman famously observed that if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., buy a dog. Even more rare than friends inside the Beltway’s ruling class are genuinely grateful people. Gratitude is an expression of virtue deeply embedded. It often manifests in civility and certainly does so in expressions of kindness. That J.D. Vance has this quality of kindness within his character is a very good thing for the GOP to advertise.

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Our country is much blessed, but many within it are suffering greatly. Politics and social media have turned many formerly kind and generous people into permanently argumentative partisans. That Vance suffered in his early years cannot be argued. Suffering changes people, usually for the good. This makes Vance a wonderful emissary from the GOP to those communities and especially those families who are suffering. Pray that the campaign’s managers deploy that secret weapon. Genuine compassion is a powerfully attractive thing.

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