BUTLER, Pa. — A year after the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the pain of that day remains raw for the family of Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter and former chief.
Comperatore, remembered by his loved ones and community as a selfless protector, was killed shielding his family when gunfire erupted, changing their lives forever.
A family’s loss
Comperatore’s widow, Helen Comperatore, carries two reminders close to her heart — a St. Christopher medal that belonged to Comperatore, and a necklace engraved with his fingerprint, WPIX reports. Next week would have marked the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary.
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“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 told WPXI-TV’s Lisa Sylvester.
Some days, she says, the tragedy feels like it happened yesterday; on others, the loss feels immeasurable.
“Sometimes I still feel like it’s the day after, and sometimes I feel like it’s been a year — it depends on the day,” she told Fox News in a special marking the one-year anniversary.
The moments before and after
On July 13, 2024, Comperatore, Helen Comperatore, and their two daughters, Alyson and Kaylee, attended the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds. An offer to move from the grass to the VIP bleachers put them right at the front — seats Comperatore chose himself.
When the shooting began, Comperatore’s final act was one of protection. Helen Comperatore recalled the last thing he said to her: “Get down,” she told WPXI.
As the chaos unfolded, Alyson remembered the moment her father shielded her with his body.
“I felt him on me,” she shared with Fox News. “I was confused for a minute, because I was like, ‘why does he feel so heavy?’ When I looked back, I saw him just laying on top of me, limp”.
Helen Comperatore described the agony of that moment to WPXI: “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”.
Searching for answers and accountability
In the months since the tragedy, Helen Comperatore has sought answers about how the shooting could happen — and why security failed. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to access a rooftop with a range finder, remaining undetected for nearly an hour.
“He was in there for an hour with a range finder, and all those people looked at him and thought he was suspicious,” Helen said to WPXI. “Why didn’t someone grab him? Why?”
Both WPXI and Fox News report on security lapses that day. Six Secret Service agents were suspended for failures, and law enforcement later met with Helen Comperatore to answer her questions.
Helen Comperatore also questioned the decision to allow the rally to proceed after threats were identified.
“What really gets me is that there was a threat and they [Secret Service] let him [Trump] come out on stage. If they had just held him, none of this would have ever happened,” she told Fox News.
A life remembered
Helen Comperatore’s home is filled with reminders of Corey: pictures in every room, his driver’s license in her wallet, his clothes still in use. A maple tree Corey planted stands in their yard, but it’s no replacement for the man she called her fixer.
“I miss knowing that, if anything was wrong, he was there to make it right, because that is what he did. 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,” she told WPXI.
The community that knew Comperatore since kindergarten continues to honor his memory, including through “Corey’s Cruise,” a motorcycle event in Russellton, Pa., that was organized to support his family and keep his legacy alive.
Moving forward
Helen Comperatore and her daughters have tried to find support in one another, their faith and the first responder community. For Alyson, the experience of tending to her father in his final moments is a weight she continues to carry.
“I screamed. And I felt like nobody could hear me. I went to go put my hands on him to stop the bleeding. Everything else was just moving in slow motion,” she recalled to Fox News.
As the one-year mark passes, Helen Comperatore and her daughters remain determined to seek accountability and remember Comperatore for the protector and hero he was — at home, in the firehouse and on that fateful day in Butler.
