Called a ‘hero,’ Corey Comperatore killed trying to shield family during Trump assassination attempt
BUTLER, Pa. — The rallygoer killed in the failed assassination attempt of former President Trump at a campaign event Saturday in Pennsylvania was identified by the FBI as Corey Comperatore, a retired firefighter who died protecting his family.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Comperatore was sitting in the crowd when the gunman, whom authorities have identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire.
Shapiro said he spoke to Comperatore’s wife, who wanted the public to know he “died a hero.”
“Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally,” Shapiro said at a news conference Sunday. “Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”
Comperatore was a girl dad, a firefighter and attended church every Sunday, Shapiro said.
“And most especially, Corey loved his family,” the governor said. “Corey was an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community.”
Shapiro said he had directed flags be flown at half-staff in Comperatore’s memory.
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Matt Achilles, 33, lives half a dozen doors from the Comperatore family, in Buffalo Township — a community so small, “you blink and you drive through it,” he said.
Achilles and his wife chose the neighborhood eight years ago for its good schools and good people. Corey Comperatore, he said, was one of the best.
“He unfortunately was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he didn’t deserve this at all,” Achilles said.
The two were friendly for years, but Achilles said Comperatore really stepped up in 2021 when Achilles suffered a health emergency on vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He spent eight days in the hospital and said Comperatore was one of the first people to reach out and offer help, including contributing to a GoFundMe account that helped the family cover medical expenses.
“Helping is in his instincts, with being a firefighter,” Achilles said. “Some people are just born like that. Helping is in their blood and instincts, and that’s just the kind of guy he was.”
Comperatore’s death is the third incident to rock Buffalo Township in recent months. Last month, a man was killed by a car while he was mowing his lawn. A 13-year-old boy riding his bicycle home was struck and killed by a truck in May.
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On Facebook, Comperatore’s sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, described him as a “hero that shielded his daughters” as shots rang out.
Comperatore had just turned 50, she wrote, and “had so much life left to experience.”
“The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most,” Comperatore Schafer wrote. “His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable. Hatred has no limits and love has no bounds.”
Comperatore Schafer declined to speak Sunday when reached by phone.
A man present at the home of Comperatore’s daughter told Times reporters that she — and the rest of the family — did not wish to speak to the media at this time.
FBI officials said they believe the shooter — who wounded two others and left one dead — acted alone. They said they are investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt, and they are also looking at it as a “potential domestic terrorism act.”
Witnesses at the Butler, Pa., rally described the aftermath as a traumatizing and bewildering scene. Robert Runyan, 34, told Times reporters he was five to 10 rows from the stage when the gunshots went off.
He said when Trump got back up, after being tackled by Secret Service agents, the crowd started cheering for him. But Runyan wasn’t celebrating with everyone else. He was more focused on a man in the bleachers who had been injured by the gunfire.
Three people nearby were trying to help him. One woman let out a “bloodcurdling” scream, which Runyan said would “stick with him forever.”
Runyan said he didn’t know whether the person he saw was Comperatore.
“I don’t want that image in my head,” he said, his eyes welling with tears. “After I got home, I haven’t been able to look at the news or at anything people are saying. I just remember the way he was situated. A guy in a blue shirt was holding down on him and looking around, and at the same time, there are people behind him cheering.”
A doctor in the crowd — 51-year-old Joseph Meyn — said he saw a man get shot on the bleachers nearby.
Meyn said he moved to help, encountering state troopers and a medic who were already there. He said he helped carry the man’s blood-soaked body, which had been covered, out of the stands.
Meyn said the man’s family appeared to be in the bleachers with him. He said he heard one woman in her 20s or 30s ask whether the man was going to be OK.
“Someone said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ She immediately burst into hysterical tears, couldn’t breathe. You could physically watch her soul get crushed like it was an empty aluminum can,” Meyn said. “I will go to my grave with that etched in my mind.”
The attempted assassination of former President Trump — and how close it came to being successful — stunned operatives of both parties familiar with the precision and detail taken by the Secret Service.
In a news conference Sunday, President Biden extended his “deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed.”
“He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden said.
Trump, who said he would “remain resilient” and proceed with campaign events, wrote on Truth Social that he was praying “for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.”
Times staff writers Lin and Goldberg reported from Pennsylvania, Mejia, Pinho and Orellana Hernandez from Los Angeles.
