The suspect of a high school shooting in Arlington, Texas, that injured four was previously bullied because of his family’s wealth, a family spokeswoman said.

“He was scared, he was afraid,” Carol Harrison-Lafayette said at a press conference outside the family’s home. “It wasn’t just one person that would attack him and bully him, taking his money, harassing him because he had more things than maybe others. It takes us all to stand together against this bullying. It could have been a situation where he took the other turn and decided to commit suicide.”

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING THAT HOSPITALIZED THREE

“Due to the fact that they were blessed financially, he was able to get things that other children or teenagers could not have,” Harrison-Lafayette continued. “And so because he wore nice clothes and because he drove nice cars and because he had the things, he was like a target.”

Timothy Simpkins, 18, fired a .45 caliber handgun in a Timberview High School classroom following an altercation with another student on Wednesday. Of the four people injured, three were hospitalized, with a 15-year-old boy still in critical condition. He fled the scene and turned himself in to the police several hours later.

She emphasized the family was not “justifying” him taking a gun to school.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"To the victims' family, there is no justification of anybody being hurt," she said.

Simpkins was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a gun. He was released from Tarrant County Jail Thursday after making $75,000 bail and outfitted with an ankle monitor.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Texas, Gun Violence, High School, Mass Shootings

Original Author: Virginia Aabram

Original Location: Suspected school shooter bullied for being wealthy, family says