Corey Comperatore, 50, was at the Trump rally Saturday with his family, according to a longtime friend. When shots rang out, he threw himself over his family members — and was fatally shot.
Comperatore’s sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, confirmed his identity in a phone interview Sunday. “We watched him die on the news,” she said, through tears. “That’s how we found out.”
Comperatore, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, had two daughters — Allyson, 27, and Kaylee, 24 — and was “definitely a family man,” according to a longtime friend, Jeff Lowers, 63. Comperatore and Lowers were volunteer firefighters, and Lowers said Comperatore’s quick instincts appeared to come into play during the shooting. Lowers said he learned about that account from Comperatore’s wife, Helen.
“Being a volunteer fireman, no matter what you’re doing, when the whistle goes off and the monitor goes off, you go and do what you need to do,” Lowers said. “We never considered ourselves a hero. But yesterday, he definitely was.”
At the rally, Dr. James Sweetland, an emergency room physician who was at the event, rushed to help Comperatore after he was shot. He said Comperatore was lying in a pool of blood, and two people helped lift him onto a bench so he could give CPR. Someone else put pressure on Comperatore’s wound above his ear. But Sweetland said there was no pulse. Two Pennsylvania State troopers helped lift Comperatore onto a stretcher.
Two other adult men were wounded at the rally and were being treated Sunday at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania State Police identified the wounded men as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. A hospital spokesperson said Sunday afternoon that both were in critical but stable condition.
Law enforcement officials said the rally attendees were shot by the gunman who opened fire from an elevated position outside the security perimeter.
A fourth person wounded during the attack is a nephew of Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who served as Trump’s White House doctor. Jackson wrote in a post on social platform X that a bullet grazed his nephew’s neck.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Sunday that Comperatore had “died a hero.”
“Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally,” said Shapiro, who spoke to Comperatore’s widow Sunday. “Corey was the very best of us.”
Comperatore loved to fish, so much that he refused to buy fish at the grocery store, Lowers said. He took meticulous care of his home, boat and cars.
He worked at JSP, a plastic manufacturing company, said another friend and fellow firefighter, Gary Risch Jr. Comperatore previously served as a former fire chief in Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania, which is on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Risch said.
On Sunday, an American flag waved in the humid breeze from the front porch of Comperatore’s gray and white-trimmed home in the town of Sarver, where modest residential houses abut farms and woodlands by Little Buffalo Creek. A dozen long-stem roses lay on the front lawn.
George Scott, Comperatore’s brother-in-law, briefly stepped out of Comperatore’s house. “We’re doing terrible,” he said. “He was everything to them,” he added, referring to the family. Scott was then ushered back into the house by the family’s pastor, Jonathan Fehl, of nearby Cabot Church.
“They want to be alone in their grieving process,” Fehl said of the family.
Comperatore was selected as a future trustee of Cabot Church in 2021, helping to oversee issues such as church property and insurance. The church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church last year and joined a new denomination that does not ordain or marry gay people. The most recent Cabot Church newsletter celebrated Comperatore’s birthday, June 14, and his wedding anniversary, June 22.
Matt Achilles, 33, has lived several houses down from Comperatore and his family for eight years. He described Comperatore as a staple in their tightknit neighborhood. He could often be seen on a tractor, mowing his lawn or taking care of his two beloved and well-trained Dobermans.
A few years ago, a vehicle wound up in Comperatore’s yard after an accident.
“As soon as the car was out of there with the tow truck, he’s out there fixing it,” Achilles recalled. “He was so attentive to detail when it came to stuff like that.”
Achilles said Comperatore had donated money to him through an online fundraising platform when he was ill and hospitalized several years ago. Last Christmas, he recalled, Comperatore asked if Achilles knew of anyone in need so he could donate a ham. He ended up giving one to a single mother with five children.
“You’re a good man!,” Achilles messaged him.
The New York Times News Service