Corey Comperatore’s Family Demands Answers Over Security Failures At Butler, PA Rally, Hires Private Attorney

The family of slain Trump supporter Corey Comparator — who was shot and killed while protecting his family from gunfire when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at the former president — is demanding answers to security failures surrounding the Butler, Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

Comperatore — a retired firefighter and father of two — was struck and killed by one of eight bullets fired by Crooks, who was positioned on a rooftop located roughly 150 yards from the former president’s podium.

“He definitely was a hero,” said Helen Comperatore, Corey’s widow, in an interview with WTAE. “He saved his wife, he saved his child and he was just the best guy. He was just the best.”

“He was just a wonderful man, and I want everybody to try not to remember him as the man that was shot at the rally,” Helen Comperatore told the outlet. “Just try to remember Corey as, he was a great man that was a great father. He was a great husband.”

Helen and Corey Comperatore were married for 29 years and had two daughters, Allyson and Kaylee, who were present at the rally with their parents on July 13. When gunfire erupted, Corey yelled at his family to get down and threw himself in front of Allyson, at which point he was struck in the head.

“I was the one that my dad threw down. As he was throwing me down, that was when he was shot and he ended up falling onto me,” Allyson said. “I don’t remember hearing any other shots. I don’t remember feeling any other shots. In that moment, I was trying to take care of him.”

“I was really confused when he was on me. I had turned around, and I went, ‘Dad,’ and when I turned is whenever he fell down, and that’s when I started screaming and instantly I was trying to keep him from bleeding.”

“He isn’t just the guy that got shot at the rally. He was a husband, a father, a son, an uncle, and he was he was the glue to our family. He was our our strength. He was everything to us and that is what got taken from this world,” Allyson told WTAE.

Helen Comperatore thanked Trump supporters and others for the outpouring of support in the wake of her husband’s murder and stressed that the family is demanding answers. “I talked to him anyway, and the only thing that ever comes out of my mouth is, ‘I’m sorry this happened to you.’ But I know he would want me to get to the bottom of it,” she said.

The Comperatore family has hired a private attorney in order to assist with their own inquiry into the lead-up to the July 13 rally. “I want justice for my husband and I’m going to get it,” Helen said.

“I just want them to know that I really think my dad’s blood is on their hands, and I hope they wake up every day thinking about what they took from our family,” Kaylee said. “Because we have to wake up every day and see that image of our father in our head, and no child should ever have to see that.”

Security failures surrounding the attempt on the former president has spawned numerous Congressional investigations and left the nation searching for answers.

Secret Service personnel took notice of Crooks roughly an hour before the shooting and snapped a photo, though he still managed to make his way onto the rooftop after climbing up an air conditioning unit.

Secret Service snapped a photo of Crooks as he lurked around the rally grounds. He was seen as a “person of interest.”

Secret Service and local law enforcement personnel were located inside the building from which Crooks fired, though the crucial rooftop was left uncovered.

The assassination attempt has led to heavy criticism of the Secret Service, which has persisted after the resignation of former Director Kim Cheatle. Recently released body camera footage from local police officers — one of whom attempted to stop the gunman moments before the shooting — shows local law enforcement disgusted with the response from the Secret Service. The officer told a colleague that he warned the Secret Service about the rooftop just days before.

Corey Comperatore volunteered with his local fire department at the age of 16 and eventually served as fire chief in Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania. His fire gear was displayed at the Republican National Convention during President Trump’s speech.

“That was a big honor. I’ll tell you why,” Helen said. “All day at the rally, my husband kept kept saying, ‘He’s going to call me up on stage, you’re going to hear him, he’s going to say Corey, get up here.’ He was just joking, obviously, but he kept saying that — ‘He’s going to call me up on stage’ — and we were all like, there’s his moment. He’s up on stage. He got his moment on stage.”

Trump recently announced that he will be returning to Butler, Pennsylvania for a rally in October. The Comperatore family is expected to attend.

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