Pennsylvania, July 19: Donald Trump paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, the volunteer fire chief who lost his life shielding his family during a shooting at a rally of the former US President in Pennsylvania.
Comperatore, 50, was remembered with a poignant moment of silence at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee. The 78-year-old leader recounted how Comperatore bravely threw himself over his family members, sacrificing his life to protect them from gunfire. “He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets,” Trump solemnly said during his speech.
Onstage, alongside Trump, were Comperatore’s firefighting helmet and jacket, poignant symbols of his courage and sacrifice. Trump paused to acknowledge these items, standing by them as he paid his respects, even kissing Comperatore’s helmet in a poignant gesture. Trump described how he narrowly survived an attempt on his life, telling a rapt audience at the RNC in his first speech since the attack that he was only there “by the grace of Almighty God.”
“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” he said in Milwaukee, a thick bandage still covering his ear. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.” When he told the crowd that he was “not supposed to be here,” the delegates chanted back, “Yes you are!” With photos of a bloodied Trump showing on screens behind him, Trump praised the Secret Service agents who rushed to his side and paid tribute to the volunteer firefighter who was killed, Corey Comperatore, kissing his fire helmet.
The former US president struck an unusually conciliatory tone during the speech’s opening moments, when he formally accepted the party’s presidential nomination. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he said, in a marked shift in tenor for the typically bellicose former president.
The firefighter who died shielding his family from a sniper’s bullets at a rally for Trump was not originally seated in the spot that put him in harm’s way, the New York Post reported, citing a close friend. “He wasn’t even supposed to be sitting there and he ends up losing his life,” said Scott Dockherty, CEO of CID Associates, where Comperatore’s brother worked.
Dockherty shared the tragic detail outside Comperatore’s wake at Laube Hall in Freeport, attended by hundreds of mourners. Comperatore had moved to a front-row seat moments before the attack by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fatally shot him. “He rushed to throw his wife and two daughters to the ground,” said his heartbroken widow, Helen, recounting the incident to The New York Post.
The Comperatores were initially standing to the left of the stage until they were offered the front-row tickets shortly before Trump’s speech. “So Corey said, ‘Yes, I would love to do that,’”Dockherty said. Trump’s address, Crooks opened fire, grazing the ex-president’s ear and injuring two others, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 54, who are both expected to recover.
