Man killed was excited to bring daughter, wife to rally

The community of Sarver, Pennsylvania, and the nation at large is rallying around the family of Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old dad and husband who was killed Saturday when a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

At the rally, he pushed his family to the ground and covered them with his body before he was fatally shot.

Corey Comperatore’s daughters share tributes to their father

In a moving tribute on Facebook that has been shared thousands of times, Comperatore’s daughter Allyson described her dad as a man who answered every call for help, whatever was needed. The post was shared in its entirety by Sen. Shannon Grove, a California Republican, who asked for prayers for the family of the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company.

Shorter versions of the post have been shared thousands of times.

“He could talk and make friends with anyone,” Allyson Comperatore, 27, wrote, “which he was doing all day yesterday and loved every minute of it. He was a man of God, loved Jesus fiercely and also looked after our church and our members as family.”

Her dad, she wrote, was especially excited about the Trump rally and the opportunity “to share what was supposed to be an exciting day that we had all looked forward to.” She ended the post with “I know you’ll give heaven some hell. I know that God is proud of the man that came to his gates yesterday.”

In a post on Comperatore’s Facebook page, his daughter Kaylee, 24, wrote , “Dad, no only were you my father, you were also my greatest role model, my hero, my inspiration and my rock....”

Comperatore was a project and tooling engineer at JSP, where he’d worked for nearly 30 years, according to his LinkedIn page. But numerous tributes from neighbors, family and friends say he was a family man to his core.

“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,” per The Washington Post .

The article quoted a Facebook post from his sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer: “The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Joshua Shapiro pays respects to Corey Comperatore

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Joshua Shapiro also paid tribute online , noting in a video that he’d ordered the U.S. and Commonwealth flags to be flown at half-staff “to recognize the tragedy that shook Pennsylvania and our nation last night and to honor Corey’s memory.” At a press conference, he said that “Corey was the very best of us.”

“He was a great leader,” Kip Johnson, current chief of the Buffalo volunteer firefighters, told The New York Times . “You couldn’t meet a more humble guy.”

How firefighters are responding to Corey Comperatore’s death

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that firefighters from around the country were expressing sorrow for the death of Comperatore, who besides being a former fire chief had been a volunteer firefighter for more than 20 years.

“Many prayers from your sisters and brothers in Inver Grove Heights, MN in the senseless loss of Chief Comperatore,” a spokesperson for Inver Grove Heights Fire wrote on social media.

“The Brothers from Jacksonville FL wishing you Peace and Prayers during this time. ... We’re getting a group up to pay our respects,” firefighter Jason Kerr wrote.

GoFundMe efforts easily pass goals

More than $980,000 has poured into a GoFundMe page for the Comperatore family after it was organized by family friend Jason Bubb. Among the more than 17,000 donors, scores also wrote tender expressions of sympathy. Many people gave $10, while at least two donated $25,000 each.

Meredith O’Rourke, a Florida GOP fundraiser, also established a Trump-approved GoFundMe for those injured and killed in the shooting at the Trump rally. By Monday morning, her fundraising goal of $1 million had been far surpassed, reaching more than $4.2 million, including a number of $50,000 donations, including from singer Kid Rock, Ultimate Fighting Champion CEO Dana White and conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. More than 53,400 people or organizations have donated so far to the fund.

The fund will also help those who were wounded in the attempted assassination. As Deseret News reported Sunday, two other bystanders were shot: David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Both were in stable condition Sunday.

The New York Times reported that a bullet grazed the neck of Rep. Ronny Jackson’s nephew. Jackson is a Texas Republican who was Trump’s doctor when he was president. Jackson wrote in a post on X that his nephew’s injury is not serious and he’s doing well.