Photo credit: Allyson Comperatore Facebook Page
The man who was fatally shot during an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday has been identified by family members.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief for Buffalo Township, was killed by shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, who also left three others, including President Trump, wounded.
In a series of social media posts, Comperatore’s family wrote that his final act as a father was shielding his daughter and wife from bullets during the ensuing gunfire.
“The media will not tell you that he died a real-life super hero,” his daughter, Allyson Comperatore, wrote on Facebook. “They are not going to tell you that he shielded my body from the bullet that came for us. He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us. And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you.”
“The PA Trump rally claimed the life of my brother, Corey Comperatore,” Dawn Comperatore Schafer wrote in a separate post to Facebook. “The hatred for one man took the life of the man who we loved the most.”
His sister continued, “He was a hero that shielded his daughters. His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable. My baby brother just turned 50 and had so much life left to experience. Hatred has no limits and love has not bounds. Pray for my sister-in-law, my mother, sister, me and his nieces and nephews as this feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality.”
His wife, Helen Comperatore, also wrote on Facebook that “Yesterday, what turned out to be such an exciting day for my husband especially, turned into a nightmare for our family.”
“What my precious girls had to witness is unforgivable. What I had to was,” she wrote. “He died the hero he always was.”
Corey Comperatore was the former fire chief of Buffalo Township’s Volunteer Fire Company. He was also an engineer for JSP International, according to his LinkedIn.
Comperatore was tragically killed just 10 minutes after President Trump took the stage at the rally—an event for which he had even expressed in a post to X that same day that he looked forward to attending.
A series of shots rang out, one of which hit President Trump in the ear. Secret Service then dove onto the president while gunfire hit surrounding audience members, including Comperatore in the head.
News of his death moved fast throughout Buffalo Township, a small community within Butler County. Matt Achilles, who lived near the victim’s family for four years, described Comperatore as a good neighbor and dedicated public servant, the Trib Live reported.
“He was a good person, Achilles said Sunday morning. “We might not have agreed on the same political views, but that didn’t stop him from being a good friend and neighbor.”
He continued, “[Comperatore] donated money to us when I was in the hospital and he would always come by at our yard sales. He always waved hello when I drove past his house.”
Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke of Comperatore’s heroic actions during a press conference on Sunday afternoon, also ordering flags to be flown at half staff in his memory, CBS reported.
“Corey was the very best of us,” Gov. Shapiro said. “Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night. Corey was a girl dad, Corey was a firefighter, Corey went to church every Sunday, Corey loved his community.”
A GoFundMe was set up on Sunday to support the Comperatore family. As of Sunday afternoon, over $125,000 has been raised for the family thus far.
