Proud "girl dad" Corey Comperatore drove half an hour with his family to see Donald Trump, a man he'd admired for years, the Washington Post reports. Apart from saving his wife and daughters, it would be the last thing he'd ever do. As gunfire erupted at Trump's rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the 50-year-old engineer and father of two from Sarver threw himself on his family, shielding them, and was fatally shot, according to an account given to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who identified Comperatore as a victim on Sunday. He said Comperatore's wife, Helen, told him her husband, a former fire chief, "died a hero."
"He shielded my body from the bullet that came at us," Comperatore's daughter, Allyson, wrote in a Facebook post, per the Guardian. "He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us." President Biden also referred to Comperatore's heroism, saying he died "protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired, God love him."
"Corey was the very best of us," Shapiro said during a news conference. He also identified the two Pennsylvania residents who were seriously wounded by the gunfire. The Guardian names them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township. Both are in stable condition at a Pittsburgh hospital. Shapiro ordered flags to fly at half staff "to recognize the tragedy that occurred at a rally for former President Trump in Butler County last evening, and in honor of Corey Comperatore, a Butler county husband and father who was killed while attending the event." More than $830,000 has been raised for the Comperatore family. (More Trump rally shooting stories.)