BUTLER, Pa. — A fire captain shielded his family as bullets rained down on the Butler Farm Show grounds during a Trump rally in Butler last year. Killed by the gunfire, Corey Comperatore is being remembered as a hero.
Helen Comparatore wears two medals around her neck, one of St. Christopher that belonged to her husband, and another with his fingerprint.
Next week, they would have celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary
“You can never explain the loneliness of missing a spouse — the person you share everything with, your deepest secrets, and then they’re gone," Helen Comperatore said.
She says that, some days, it feels like it’s been a whole year, and other days, like forever ago.
>>> ‘He died a hero’: Butler County fire community remembers former chief killed at Trump rally <<<
Helen, Corey and their two daughters, Alyson and Kaylee, went to that Trump rally in Butler. Someone asked if they wanted to move from the grassy area to the VIP section
“We were the very first people to sit in those bleachers,” Helen Comperatore said. “We had the pick of the seats, and that’s where my husband chose to sit.”
Corey Comperatore shielded his family as the bullets rained down.
Channel 11’s Lisa Sylvester asked, “Do you remember the last thing he said to you?”
“Get down,” Helen Comperatore said.
“I’ll never forget Kaylee’s screams. She just continued to scream, and of course, holding his head, I knew he was already gone, but you just beg him to stay,” Helen Comperatore said.
Six Secret Service agents were suspended for failures on that day.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get into a building and onto the roof.
“He was in there for an hour with a range finder, and all those people looked at him and thought he was suspicious,” Helen Comperatore said. “Why didn’t someone grab him? Why?”
She has reminders of her husband in her front yard, including a maple tree that he planted. But they can’t fill the hole in her heart.
“I miss knowing that, if anything was wrong, he was there to make it right, because that is what he did,” she said. “No matter what it was, Corey fixed it. Whether it was something broken in the house or something broken here in my heart, Corey fixed it.”
They had known each other a long time, just about their whole lives. They met in kindergarten and were high school sweethearts.
The community was set to gather Saturday to support the family and remember Corey Comperatore with “Corey’s Cruise,” a motorcycle cruise in Russelton, Pa.
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