FREEPORT, Pa. \u2014 Friends, neighbors, strangers \u2014 they rose early Thursday to line the main drag of Corey Comperatore\u2019s tiny hometown with knee-high American flags.<\/p>\n
Firetrucks flanked the black van carrying his body up the country road to Laube Hall. Snipers kept watch on roofs.<\/p>\n
No one knew how many mourners would roll into Freeport to say goodbye at a celebration here honoring his life. In the five days since Comperatore\u2019s death at the Trump rally 20 miles away shocked the world, a GoFundMe page to support his family had raised more than $1 million. Friends, neighbors, strangers \u2014 they were all still processing it.<\/p>\n
Now they streamed by the hundreds toward the first of two gatherings before Friday\u2019s private funeral. Inside sat his coffin.<\/p>\n
Comperatore, who had celebrated his 50th birthday last month, spent his life in this blue-collar community on the Allegheny River. He graduated from Freeport High School, home of the Yellowjackets, and married his former classmate, Helen. Together, they raised two daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quintessential family man and the best girl dad,\u201d his obituary said.<\/p>\n
His cousin, 58-year-old Cindy Villella, had admired those fatherly qualities. That\u2019s what came to mind when she thought of Comperatore: Doting dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust so sincere,\u201d she said, walking into the gathering, \u201cand so caring.\u201d<\/p>\n
She summed up her feelings in one word: Shock.<\/p>\n
For nearly three decades, Comperatore worked at a plastics plant in the forested hills of Butler County, rising from maintenance supervisor to project engineer. In his spare time, he\u2019d served in the U.S. Army Reserve and as a volunteer firefighter \u2014 \u201cthe first one running into a burning building,\u201d recalled Kip Johnston, Buffalo Township\u2019s fire chief.<\/p>\n
His Christian faith guided his life, the obituary said. Every Sunday, Comperatore worshiped at Cabot Church. Then he was likely to be off hunting, fishing or walking his two Dobermans, said his brother, Steve Warheit.<\/p>\n
MAGA politics was his other passion. He loved Trump, Warheit said, and had been thrilled to attend Saturday\u2019s rally. Minutes into Trump\u2019s stump speech, gunfire shattered that joy. Comperatore flung himself over his wife and daughters, Helen told Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), and died trying to protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorey was the very best of us,\u201d Shapiro said at a news conference this week near the Butler Farm Show, a rural venue known for tractor-pulling contests and funnel cake before the attempted assassination.<\/p>\n
The gunman \u2014 shot dead at the scene \u2014 was a 20-year-old man who\u2019d driven in from a nearby Pittsburgh suburb. Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican, had climbed atop the American Glass Research building outside the rally\u2019s security perimeter and crouched on its slanted roof with an AR-style rifle. He fired eight shots, authorities said, killing Comperatore, gravely wounding two other spectators and injuring Trump\u2019s right ear.<\/p>\n
Three days later, Trump called Comperatore\u2019s widow to check on her, she wrote on Facebook. (Biden had been the first leader to call, she\u2019d told the New York Post, but she\u2019d declined to speak with him because of her husband\u2019s political views.)<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very kind,\u201d she wrote of Trump, \u201cand said he would continue to call me in the days and weeks ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helen called Lt. Col. John Placek, 76, to erect a special electronic billboard outside Thursday\u2019s gathering, he said while surveying his handiwork. (Folks in town know that he owns a few, he added.)<\/p>\n
\u201cPraying for Corey Comperatore & his family,\u201d flashed the billboard, which displayed a photo of Comperatore next to an illustration of Jesus placing his hands on Trump\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor something like this to happen \u2026\u201d Placek said, trailing off. \u201cAmerica is in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across this slice of western Pennsylvania \u2014 a Republican stronghold dotted with Trump signs \u2014 residents have gathered all week in churches, diners and backyards.<\/p>\n
They huddled Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil at the Lernerville Speedway, a dirt racetrack near Comperatore\u2019s birthplace. Despite the rain, hundreds perched on the damp bleachers, clutching votive candles or lighting up their cellphones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an event of a political nature,\u201d the organizer, Kelly McCollough, told the crowd. \u201cThere is no room for hate here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marissa Timko, a 25-year-old veterinary technician in a Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company hoodie, nodded along.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d gone to high school with Comperatore\u2019s daughter, Kaylee, and they\u2019d both been cheerleaders. Once, after a football game, a few of the girls needed a ride home, so Kaylee called her dad.<\/p>\n
Timko said she\u2019ll never forget it: Comperatore pulling up in his blue Ford pickup truck, ready to play chauffeur \u2014 even though the cheerleaders lived in opposite directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would do anything for his daughters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Had they been listening that night to country music? Christian rock? Timko couldn\u2019t remember, but Kaylee once told her that Comperatore\u2019s favorite song was \u201cI Can Only Imagine,\u201d a tear-jerker by MercyMe about reaching heaven. So, as soon as she heard the news, she ordered glass art for her old friend featuring those lyrics:<\/p>\n
Surrounded by Your glory<\/p>\n
What will my heart feel?<\/p>\n
Will I dance for you Jesus<\/p>\n
Or in awe of You be still?<\/p>\n
A few rows back, Jessica Day clasped her hands in prayer. Comperatore had attended her church, the 48-year-old nurse said. There he was, every Sunday, in the pews with his family. Though Day didn\u2019t know him well, she said, she could tell that he was devoted to Jesus.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even if you don\u2019t believe in God, you can believe in this,\u201d she said, motioning to the friends, neighbors and strangers who had trudged out in a downpour.<\/p>\n
She was wearing a pink hoodie, which she\u2019d bought at a fundraiser for a teenage boy in town who\u2019d suffered a brain injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we do here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe band together for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
FREEPORT, Pa. \u2014 Friends, neighbors, strangers \u2014 they rose early Thursday to line the main drag of Corey Comperatore\u2019s tiny hometown with knee-high American flags. Firetrucks flanked the black van carrying his body up the country road to Laube Hall. Snipers kept watch on roofs. No one knew how many mourners would roll into Freeport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}