Corey Comperatore was violently shot Saturday evening after he shielded his family from a sniper who was attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
An engineer by profession, the 50-year-old Comperatore, who was the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, a husband to his wife, Helen, and a father to their two daughters, Allyson and Kaylee, is being hailed as a hero for protecting his family from this senseless act.
At approximately 6:15 p.m., the shooter, who has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, used an AR-style rifle to fire off multiple shots at Trump while lying on a rooftop an estimated 150 yards from where Trump was speaking to a crowd of Pennsylvanians in the hopes of securing their vote for November’s upcoming presidential election.
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U.S. Secret Service gunmen immediately returned fire, killing the would-be assassin, but not before Crooks was able to shoot several shots in Trump’s direction. One of those bullets hit the former president in the ear, another fatally hit Comperatore, and two other bullets critically injured 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver—both of whom have been reported to be in stable condition at Allegheny General Hospital.
Dr. James Sweetland, an emergency room physician who was attending the rally with his wife, was sitting in the bleacher section located behind Trump near Comperatore at the time he was shot. Sweetland immediately rushed to Comperatore’s aid, and with the help of others placed his body on the bench of the bleachers and started performing CPR. Sweetland recalls that after about two minutes, he was tapped on the shoulder by local authorities informing him that they would take over.
Sweetland informed Fox News that Comperatore’s wound was a very serious gunshot wound to the head.
Comperatore’s wife posted on social media that her husband “died a hero he always was.”
His daughter Allyson also posted on social media and said her father was “the best dad a girl could ever ask for.”
“Yesterday time stopped. And when it started again my family and I started living a real-life nightmare,” she added. “What was supposed to be an exciting day that we had all looked forward to (ESPECIALLY my dad), turned into the most traumatizing experiences someone could imagine.”
