Victim in Trump rally shooting died while shielding his family from gunfire

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

United States

On Sunday (NZ time), Corey Comperatore drove to a fairground half an hour away from his house to hear from former president Donald Trump, someone he had admired for years.

Comperatore, an engineer and father of two, had just turned 50. He and his family watched from a set of bleachers draped in the colours of the American flag as Trump began to speak.

Minutes later, the sound of gunfire ripped through the sweltering air. Comperatore didn’t hesitate. He threw himself on top of his family to shield them, his wife Helen told Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.

She and her daughters emerged unscathed, only to discover that Comperatore had been fatally shot. “Corey died a hero,” she told the governor, who recounted their conversation on Sunday.

Saturday’s shooting has sent shock waves across the country and the FBI is investigating the attack as an assassination attempt.

But for Comperatore’s family, the tragedy is a personal earthquake – the loss of someone who loved his children, who never missed a chance to go fishing, who spent years as a volunteer firefighter running toward danger.

“The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most,” wrote his older sister Dawn Comperatore Schafer in a post on Facebook. “This feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality.”

In addition to identifying Comperatore, authorities Sunday also named two men from other parts of Pennsylvania – David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74 – who were gravely wounded in the attack. They were transported to a Pittsburgh hospital, where a hospital official said they were in critical condition.

Shapiro described Comperatore as a firefighter, a churchgoer and a proud “girl dad.” He was “so excited” to attend the rally, Shapiro said. Friends were following Comperatore’s posts on Facebook from the event.

“Corey was the very best of us,” Shapiro added during a news conference at the Butler Township administration building. He ordered all flags at state government buildings to fly at half-staff in recognition of the tragedy and to honour Comperatore’s memory. He also extended prayers on behalf of all Pennsylvanians to the two injured men and their families.

For Comperatore’s family, there was grief and shock.

Steve Warheit, 50, was bleary-eyed from a lack of rest at his home in hilly Allegheny County. He hadn’t slept much since getting the call that Comperatore, his brother, was killed.

For Warheit, Comperatore was always brother, never “stepbrother” – they’d been too inseparable for that.

Warheit’s dad had married Comperatore’s mom when both boys were 14. They hunted and fished together through their formative years into adulthood. Comperatore’s sense of humour shimmers through the photos on Warheit’s phone.

There he is, grinning broadly while showing off the smallest catch of the day – an obviously puny largemouth bass. “That’s Corey,” Warheit said, smiling at the memory.

And though Warheit held different political views, he’d respected the passion of his brother. Comperatore loved his family. He loved God. He was protective but not self-important – not with that sense of humour.

Comperatore was the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company and an engineer by profession.

At the fire station on Sunday, an American flag dangled at half-staff in honour of Comperatore. The chief, 59-year-old Kip Johnston, said he was struggling to process the fact that his friend of three decades was gone.

How many afternoons had they shared in this office, listening to the fire scanner before charging out the door together? “He was the first one running into a burning building,” Johnston said.

No one at the station was surprised when they learned he’d died trying to save his family. “A real leader,” Johnston said.