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Butler, Pa. – No one in Butler, Pa. – population 13,000 – ever imagined their quiet community would become the backdrop to an attempted presidential assassination.
But on July 13, 2024, gunman Thomas Mathew Crooks opened fire at a rally for once and future President Donald Trump at the local farm showgrounds, a burst of violence that reverberated far beyond western Pennsylvania’s rolling hills and changed the course of American history.
One bullet grazed Trump’s ear and could have ended his life had he tilted his head even slightly. In the months that followed, Republicans rallied fiercely behind him. Trump went on to win re-election in a wave of support, with backers, and Trump himself, saying God had spared him to save America.
Residents and rally attendees are still stunned that their town became synonymous with the attack, and saddened that Butler’s image as a peaceful farm community has been overshadowed by that dark day.
FIRST RESPONDERS SIT DOWN WITH WIDOW OF FIREFIGHTER KILLED AT BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA TRUMP RALLY
The turnout coat of Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire department chief who was shot and killed in the July assassination attempt against Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump, is seen in the stands during a moment of silence during a rally, in Butler, Pennsylvania, Oct. 5, 2024. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
“For something like this to thrust Butler into the national and the international spotlight, it’s very sad,” J.D. Longo, mayor of Slippery Rock, told Fox News Digital.
“It’s not what anybody in Butler or western Pennsylvania wants to be known for,” Longo said. “This is a place where you can start a family if you want to, have a great life.”
But most of all, their hearts break for the family of the firefighter who lost his life when Crooks fired eight shots directed at Trump.
“Many of us hope that, despite the ugliness and the horror of that day and…
