The rally goer killed at 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 has directed flags be flown at half-staff in Comperatore’s memory.
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 — do not wish to speak to the media at this time.
Witnesses at the Butler, Pa., rally describe 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 “blood-curdling” scream, which Runyan said would “stick with him forever.”
Runyan said he doesn’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.”
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 will “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 and Orellana Hernandez from Los Angeles.