The FBI is investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt on the former president. Two other men were gravely wounded in the attack and were transported to a Pittsburgh hospital, where they remained Sunday.
Shapiro described Comperatore as a firefighter, a churchgoer and a proud “girl dad.” He was “so excited” to attend the rally, Shapiro said.
“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 honor 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.
The shooting “claimed the life of my brother,” Dawn Comperatore Schafer wrote in a post on Facebook. “The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most.”
Her younger brother had just turned 50 and had “so much life left to experience,” she wrote. “This feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality.”
Comperatore was the former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, and was an engineer by profession, according to a LinkedIn profile matching his name and photo.
At the Buffalo Township fire station on Sunday, an American flag dangled at half-staff in honor 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.
Comperatore could have bragged about the lives he saved, Johnston said, but he preferred to talk about his family, including his pair of Dobermans, Cane and Ivan.
Paul Hayden, 62, lives across the street from Comperatore’s home in Sarver, about 12 miles from the rally. Comperatore owned a boat, Hayden said, and on weekends, he could be found fishing for bass and walleye on the Allegheny River. The neighbors often rode dirt bikes together along the trails in Cook Forest State Park.
Hayden, who is a Biden supporter, said that Comperatore flew a Trump flag in his yard during the last presidential election. But that never impacted their rapport, Hayden said.
“I know he was a Trump guy and he knew I was a Biden guy, but we never let that come between us,” Hayden said. “He was a very good person and it was a shame things happened the way they happened.”
Amy B Wang contributed to this report.
