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Man killed during Trump assassination attempt identified as Corey Comperatore
BUTLER, Pa. (KDKA) – One man was killed and two others were critically injured in a shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump on Saturday night.
Shots rang out at the rally in Butler, and Trump was rushed off stage after a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear.
One of the victims was identified as Corey Comperatore, according to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
“Corey was the very best of us,” Shapiro said in a news conference on Sunday afternoon. “Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night. Corey was a girl dad, Corey was a firefighter, Corey went to church every Sunday, Corey loved his community.”
According to the governor, Comperatore was shot while attempting to shield his family from the gunfire.
Governor Shapiro said he is ordering flags to fly at half-staff in memory of Comperatore.
Two other spectators were critically injured and rushed to the hospital.
Thomas Matthew Crooks identified as the shooter
Meanwhile, the gunman was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park. The U.S. Secret Service said he was shot and killed by a sniper.
Law enforcement has told CBS News that Crooks opened fire with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and the ATF is currently tracing the weapon.
It was also revealed on Sunday that suspicious devices were found in Crooks’s vehicle. He had a piece of commercially available equipment that appeared capable of initiating those devices.
Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the rally, according to the agency.
This is a developing story, stay with CBS Pittsburgh for the latest.
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Why are astronauts stuck in space? Here’s how the Boeing Starliner crew ended up on the space station for months.
Two NASA astronauts who flew up to the International Space Station in a Boeing Starliner capsule for a round trip that was supposed to last just over a week will be stuck in space for closer to a year before they can come home. Despite the astronauts’ longer-than-expected stay at the space station, officials have insisted that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore aren’t stranded in space.
Here’s what we know about the stuck astronauts:
Why are the astronauts stuck in space?
Williams and Wilmore blasted off to the space station in June. Their mission was supposed to take between eight and 10 days, but helium leaks in the capsule’s propulsion system and degraded thrusters, which are important for re-entry, upended plans for bringing the astronauts back to Earth.
“Eight days to eight months or nine months or 10 months, whatever it is, we’re going to do the very best job we can do every single day,” Wilmore told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann in September. At the time, they were expected to leave the space station in late February 2025.
The capsule safely returned to Earth in September with no one onboard.
Who are the astronauts who are stuck in space?
Williams turned 59 on the space station in September. She joined NASA in 1998 after serving in the Navy for over a decade, retiring as a captain. As a naval aviator, she logged over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. At NASA, she had set a record for women with four spacewalks lasting a total of 29 hours, 17 minutes, but it was broken by Peggy Whitson with her fifth spacewalk in 2008.
Wilmore also retired from the Navy as a captain, recording over 8,000 flight hours as a naval aviator. During Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991, Wilmore flew 21 combat missions. He joined NASA in 2000 and accumulated 178 days in space before the Starliner mission. Like Williams, he has also performed four spacewalks, totaling 25 hours, 36 minutes.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images
Why did the Boeing Starliner crew go to the International Space Station in the first place?
The June launch was the Starliner’s first piloted test flight. NASA has funded the development of the capsule and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as the space agency looks to stop using Russian Soyuz flights to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
When will the astronauts be able to return to Earth?
On Tuesday, Dec. 17, NASA announced Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth after the agency’s new SpaceX crew arrives at the space station. That won’t happen until late March at the earliest so NASA and SpaceX can have more time to finish a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission, NASA said.
Have other astronauts been stuck in the International Space Station before?
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two cosmonauts’ six-month stay on the space station was unexpectedly extended to a year after their Soyuz ship became disabled. A replacement had to be launched up to the trio so they could return to Earth in 2023.
contributed to this report.
