By Laura Esposito
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BUTLER, Pa. — A member of the Trump family will travel to Butler this week to pay respects to a fallen firefighter gunned down at a rally for the former president.
Buffalo Township Supervisor Michael Oehling on Wednesday said Eric Trump confirmed to township officials that a member of the family will be in attendance at either viewing services on Thursday or the funeral on Friday for Corey Comperatore.
Mr. Oehling said it hasn’t been confirmed who will represent the family. A public viewing will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport. Funeral services on Friday are private.
Comperatore, 50 and a father of two, was shot to death when Thomas Crooks, 20, tried to assassinate Trump at a campaign event in Butler on Saturday. Also injured were David Dutch, 57, of Plum, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon. Both men are recovering at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side, where their conditions were upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious.
Crooks himself died when Secret Service snipers protecting the former president fired back at the gunman on the roof of a nearby building. Trump sustained a wound to his right ear.
Crooks took his shots with an AR-style 5.56-caliber rifle from the roof of a building about 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. The shooter bought ammunition at Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park hours before the rally on Saturday, the Post-Gazette learned Monday.
Investigators found “rudimentary” explosive devices and bomb-making material inside his car and in the home he shared with his parents in Bethel Park.
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