CABOT, Pa. — Hundreds of people assembled in a corner of western Pennsylvania on Friday to say their final goodbyes to Corey Comperatore, the father of two who was killed during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last weekend.

Procession of Police Cars, Fire Trucks, and Motorcycles

A procession of police cars, motorcycles and fire trucks marked the beginning of the funeral proceedings Friday morning, before a private service. A fire truck draped in black bunting brought Comperatore’s coffin, wrapped in an American flag, to Cabot Church, a Methodist congregation where Comperatore, 50, was a longtime member.

Comperatore’s life revolved around this pocket of Pennsylvania: He grew up in Sarver and still lived there with his high school sweetheart and two daughters. He attended church in Cabot and graduated from high school in nearby Freeport.

People here are not accustomed to crowds, but Comperatore’s death has put the community into the national spotlight.

“You couldn’t comprehend that happened,” said Michael Drane, 66, who stood across the street from the church Friday morning to pay tribute to a man he had only known as a familiar face in the neighborhood. He blinked back tears as he recalled the violence Saturday. “Not here. Not home.”

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American Flag Hangs from Fire Trucks

Nearby, a gentle breeze blew against a giant American flag hanging from a fire truck parked next to the church. A sign outside the church read, “Our hearts are broken for the Comperatores.”

After the funeral, a line of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, some from as far away as Florida and Texas, joined the procession leaving the church.

Makeshift tributes and memorials have popped up across the small communities here. A large electronic billboard above a road in nearby Freeport displayed a photo of Comperatore, who Gov. Josh Shapiro said dived in front of his family to protect them as shots rang out. Next to his photo was a phrase that has been uttered by the governor and residents across Pennsylvania: “A Real Hero.”

During his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night, Trump singled out Comperatore, saying that he had “lost his life selflessly.” Comperatore’s firefighter uniform was displayed onstage near Trump as he spoke. At one point, the former president kissed the helmet and asked the crowd to observe a moment of silence for “our friend, Corey.”

“This is one of those things that’s a once-in-a-century situation,” said Gary Risch Jr., a longtime friend and fellow volunteer firefighter involved in the funeral preparations.

Questions have continued to mount over how the Secret Service allowed a would-be assassin to scale a building within a rifle’s range of the former president and open fire, killing Comperatore and seriously wounding two other rally attendees in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday.

Cheatle Faces Calls to Resign

The agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, has faced calls to resign. On Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson called on President Joe Biden to fire her.

Nearly a week after the attack, investigators are still unsure of the gunman’s motive, and much about his life remains a mystery.

On Wednesday, FBI officials told lawmakers they had found no indication that the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, held strong partisan or ideological views. They said he had searched for images of both Trump and Biden, looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention and Trump’s public appearances, and sought information about “major depressive disorder.”

The two men who were wounded at the rally — James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57 — were in serious but stable condition Thursday, said Bill Toland, a spokesperson for Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where the men are being treated.

Copenhaver, from Moon Township, Pennsylvania, was a retiree who once worked at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and who played in a band. Dutch, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, was a Marine Corps veteran and a leader in his local chapter of the Marine Corps League, a service and advocacy organization.

Dutch was also a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 92 in Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania. Rich Ratajczak, a Vietnam veteran, said he had been watching the rally on TV and saw someone get shot. But it was only when he went to the club later that he learned it was his friend.

“I said, ‘Oh, my God, I saw what happened, but I didn’t realize who it was,’” he said.

The club held a prayer for Dutch during bingo Tuesday night, and Ratajczak said that members had signed a giant “Get well” card for him.

Services for Comperatore began Thursday with a public visitation at a banquet hall in Freeport. Hundreds of people, many wearing black dresses and suits, stood outside the building in the afternoon in a line that stretched at least a quarter-mile, waiting to pay their respects. Two snipers were stationed on the roof, and two more on an adjacent building.

Inside, more officers scanned the line of mourners. Snapshots of the family were projected onto a large screen. One showed a black Doberman resting on Comperatore’s shoulder. Another showed his wife and daughters at a graduation ceremony.

A third pictured him holding a birthday cake with two candles. It appeared to be a recent photograph: Comperatore had turned 50 a month before he was killed.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Eduardo Medina, Isabelle Taft and Emily Cochrane/Kristian Thacker
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