dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Grinning Trump shooter Thomas Crooks is seen dressed up in combat gear, as friends tell how the 10-year-old like to play soldiershttps://trib.al/pwkTTa6

Today, through a trove of pictures and the accounts of family friends, Dailymail.com can give the first real glimpse into the childhood of the boy who would grow up to try to kill a president.

He went from the 'normal little boy' who liked to play soldiers and miniature golf, to the increasingly disturbed young man who grew his hair long, isolated himself from friends and became plagued by mental health disturbances that led some to believe he was either bi-polar or schizophrenic.

It was a journey that ended catastrophically at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday when Crooks, 20, took aim at the former president hitting him in the ear, killing one member of the crowd and seriously injuring two others.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one person who knows the family well said, 'He was a cute kid, maybe a little bit off, maybe a little bit of a loner.

'But in the past couple of years he started suffering what we all suspected was mental health issues.'