Helen Comperatore, whose husband, Corey Comperatore, was killed when a gunman tried to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump, returned to honor her husband’s memory.
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Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday hugging family members of Corey Comperatore, who was killed at his rally in July in Butler, Pa.
Helen Comperatore, the widow of Corey Comperatore, the former volunteer fire chief who was killed when a gunman tried to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pa., returned to the venue on Saturday when Mr. Trump came back for another rally.
Mr. Comperatore, who was in the bleachers behind Mr. Trump in July, was killed as he tried to shield his wife and their two daughters when the shooter opened fire. Ms. Comperatore said that while it had not been an easy decision, she and her daughters had agreed that her late husband, who was a longtime Trump supporter, would have wanted them to return to the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds for Mr. Trump’s rally.
“To go back up to that site where my husband was killed and open wounds that we’re trying to close — my kids haven’t even started to go back to work yet, and I was afraid it’d take them backwards,” she said in an interview this week. But ultimately, she said, “we decided this was something we needed to do.”
“We needed to go and honor Corey,” she said. “He would have done it for me.”
ImageThe stands in the rally venue held the coat of the former volunteer fire chief who was killed when a gunman opened fire at the July 13 rally, in Butler, Pa.Credit…Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Ms. Comperatore said that a representative of Mr. Trump’s campaign had invited her to attend his event. A campaign spokeswoman said that Mr. Trump would “honor the victims from that tragic day and their families.”
The Comperatores were sitting in the V.I.P. section at the rally at the Butler Farm Show complex, behind where Mr. Trump was standing, when the gunman, Thomas Crooks, opened fire. They had expected to watch the rally from the general seating area in front of the former president but had been ushered into the bleachers as rally staff filled in open seats shortly before the program began.
“He was ecstatic,” Ms. Comperatore said of her husband. It had been his first time seeing Mr. Trump speak in person.
Ms. Comperatore said she hoped to establish a foundation of some kind in her husband’s name. “It’s been very hard,” she said of the months since the shooting. “I don’t sleep very well at all — maybe an hour here, an hour there. I lost someone I’ve been with for 34 years. That’s more than half my life.”
Charles Homans is a reporter for The Times and The Times Magazine, covering national politics. More about Charles Homans
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Source: nytimes.com
