The rally-goer who died in the failed assassination attempt on former President Trump at a campaign event Saturday in Pennsylvania has been 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 identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire.
Retired Firefighter Corey Comperatore.
(Corey Comperatore)
Shapiro said he spoke to Comperatore's wife, who wanted the public to know that “he died a hero.”
“Corey stepped up to protect his family last night at this rally,” Shapiro said at a news conference Sunday. “Corey was the best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”
Comperatore was the father of one daughter, a firefighter and attended church every Sunday, Shapiro said.
“And most of all, Corey loved his family,” the governor said. “Corey was a fervent supporter of the former president and was very excited to be there last night with him in the community.”
Shapiro said he ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in memory of Comperatore.
On Facebook, Comperatore's sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, described him as a “hero who protected his daughters” as gunshots rang out.
Comperatore had just turned 50, he wrote, and “had a lot of life left to experience.”
“Hatred for one man took the life of the man we loved most,” wrote Comperatore Schafer. “His wife and daughters experienced the unthinkable and unimaginable. Hatred has no limits and love has no borders.”
Comperatore Schafer declined to comment when reached by phone on Sunday.
A man present at Comperatore's daughter's home told Times reporters that she and the rest of the family do not wish to speak to the media at this time.
Witnesses to the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, describe the aftermath as a traumatizing and disconcerting scene. Robert Runyan, 34, told Times reporters he was five to 10 rows from the stage when the shots rang out.
He said that when Trump stood up, after Secret Service agents had wrestled him to the ground, the crowd began cheering. But Runyan wasn't celebrating with the others. He was more focused on a man in the stands who had been injured by gunfire.
Three bystanders tried to help him. One woman let out a “bloodcurdling” scream that Runyan said “stayed with him forever.”
Runyan said he doesn't know if the person he saw was Comperatore.
“I don’t want to have that image in my head,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “After I got home, I haven’t been able to watch the news or anything people are saying. I just remember how he looked. A guy in a blue shirt was holding him and looking around, and at the same time there were people behind him clapping.”
A medic in the crowd, Joseph Meyn, 51, said he saw a man get shot in the nearby stands.
Meyn said he went over to help and found state troopers and a medic already there. He said he helped remove the man's bloodied body, which had been covered, from the stands.
Meyn said the man's family appeared to be in the stands with him. He said he heard a woman in her 20s or 30s ask if the man was going to be OK.
“Someone said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ Immediately, she burst into hysterical tears, she couldn’t breathe. You could physically see her soul being crushed like an empty aluminum can,” Meyn said. “I will go to the grave with that etched in my mind.”
At a press conference on Sunday, President Biden expressed his “deepest condolences to the family of the slain victim.”
“He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden said.
Trump, who said he would “remain resilient” and continue to press ahead with campaign events, wrote on Truth Social that he was praying “for the recovery of those who were injured and would keep in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly murdered.”
Times staff writers Lin and Goldberg reported from Pennsylvania; Mejia and Orellana Hernandez reported from Los Angeles.
