Texas shooter was bullied: kin
The student accused of opening fire at a Texas high school had been bullied over his financially “blessed” family, fancy clothes and $35,000 car — and bought a handgun for protection, his relatives say.
Timothy George Simpkins, 18, a student at Timberview HS in Arlington, faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following Wednesday’s shooting.
Released from custody Thursday after posting a $75,000 bond, he will be kept on home confinement.
Social-media footage allegedly showed Simpkins fighting with another student before the gunfire.
The fight was broken up. Both students appeared to calm down. But then Simpkins pulled a firearm from his orange backpack and fired several shots that struck three people, according to an arrest warrant Thursday.
Simpkins reportedly lives in a $400,000 home with his grandmother and drives a 2018 Dodge Charger, allegedly making him a target for bullies at his school.
“He was robbed. It was recorded. It happened not just once. It happened twice. He was scared. He was afraid,” Carol Harrison-Lafayette, a family spokesman, told reporters.
“He was able to get things that other teenagers cannot have, because he wore nice clothes, because he drove nice cars. He was like a target,” Harrison-Lafayette added.
A cousin, Cint Wheat, said the family is thankful that Simpkins didn’t commit suicide over the bullying he faced because the family was “blessed financially,” the Daily Mail said.
“At the end of the day my lil cousin was bullied,” Wheat wrote on Facebook. “I don’t know to feel about this he not no bad kid.”
When asked about the bullying allegations, schools spokesman Donald Williams said the Mansfield district is conducting a full investigation. “What I will say to that is we take the safety and security of our students in our faculty and staff seriously,” he said.
Meanwhile, police confirmed that they are “aware” of two videos shared on social media of a classroom fight in the morning that may shed light on the shooting.
“They are being looked at as part of the investigation,” said police spokesman Tim Ciesco without saying who was in the earlier videos.