The last words of a heroic father who was killed shielding his family from a would-be assassin’s bullets have been revealed.
Corey Comperatore, 50, a former volunteer firefighter and devoted family man, was killed in Butler, Pa., on Saturday during an attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life shortly after he began his rally speech. Two other people were severely wounded in the attack, and one bullet clipped Trump’s right ear.
On Monday, Comperatore’s widow revealed his final act of bravery: recounting his last words as he protected them from the bullets that ended his life.
“Get down!” he yelled as he moved in to put his body between the shooter and his family.
“He’s my hero,” Helen Comperatore told the New York Post from the couple’s home in Sarver, Pennsylvania. “He just said, ‘get down!’ That was the last thing he said.”
She revealed that President Joe Biden made an attempt to reach out to her and her family following the tragic shooting, but she declined the call. “I didn’t talk to Biden. I didn’t want to talk to him,” she said. “My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.”
Biden, along with most Democrats and left-wing commentators, have for the past few years referred to Trump as “Hitler,” “worse than Hitler,” a “fascist,” and a “threat to democracy,” which many critics on the right say may have radicalized the 20-year-old assailant into taking matters into his own hands. The FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt is ongoing.
Helen told The Post the couple, who were high school sweethearts, was about to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary. “Me and the kids were all there as a family,” she recounted. “He was just excited. It was going to be a nice day with the family.” Sadly, the day turned tragic. “It was a bad day. He was a very loving husband.”
“He was a simple man but he put his wife and kids first all the time. I did nothing here. I didn’t lift a finger. He did everything.” A GoFundMe page set up by her family has raised more than $1.1 million at press time. “The donations that are coming in across the community and across the country, it’s more than I can even imagine,” she said. “It’s more than I can fathom, but he deserves it all. He deserves everything.”
“I don’t have any ill-will towards Joe Biden. I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump, that’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill-will towards Biden,” the grieving widow said, adding: “He didn’t do anything to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did.”
Trump said he was grateful to be alive after the terrifying moment on Saturday when an assassin attempted to kill him at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.
During a phone interview with the New York Post, the 45th president described the “very surreal experience” that almost took his life, saying he’s “supposed to be dead.”
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle. I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead. I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump said.
If he hadn’t tilted his head slightly to the right to read a chart about illegal immigrants, he stated he would have been. What would have been a fatal shot at that moment tore off a small portion of his ear and splashed blood across his cheek and forehead.
Trump claimed that even though Secret Service officials were escorting him off stage, he still desired to address the crowd, but they had to take him off the stage because the situation was unsafe.
He removed his long-sleeved white shirt to reveal a massive bruise on his right forearm, marveling at how the agents arrived like “linebackers” as soon as the gunfire began.
He also answered a question concerning his shoes. He could be heard shouting, “Wait, I want to get my shoes,” on footage of the incident and its aftermath, as the agents sought to quickly move him off the stage.
As Trump explained in the interview, “The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,” he said with a smile.
The gunman was positioned on a roof approximately 130 yards away from the platform where Trump was speaking. He applauded the Secret Service agents for their bravery.
“They took him out with one shot right between the eyes. They did a fantastic job. It’s surreal for all of us,” Trump said.
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