Jim Copenhaver, one of two spectators critically wounded in the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Butler County rally, has died at age 76. Journalist Ken Silva first reported the news on X, citing a source close to the family.
Silva said Copenhaver had been living with permanent injuries from that day, including bullet fragments still lodged in his body. “I’ve got very sad news: Jim Copenhaver, who was shot at the Butler Trump rally on July 13, 2024, has died,” Silva wrote. “I don’t have many details at this point, but it’s no secret that Jim was dealing with permanent injuries from Butler — including having bullet fragments still inside of him.”
An official cause of death has not been released, and Copenhaver’s family has not yet spoken publicly about his passing.
The Butler Rally Attack
Copenhaver was struck by gunfire when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop overlooking the crowd at the Butler campaign rally, an attack that left Trump bloodied after a bullet grazed his ear. Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire chief, was killed while shielding his wife and daughters. Copenhaver and another spectator, David Dutch, were critically wounded and rushed to the hospital.
Copenhaver was hit by two bullets — one that tore through his tricep and another that struck his abdomen. Dutch was shot in the liver.
“I turned around to my friend, and I said, ‘I think I was shot,’ and that’s when I got the second one and then I went down,” Copenhaver told NBC News in an earlier interview.
He underwent multiple surgeries and was ultimately left with bullet fragments still inside him. After recovering enough to speak publicly about the attack, Copenhaver was critical of the security lapses that allowed the shooting to happen.
“I’m sure there was negligence. It wouldn’t have happened, had it been secure,” Copenhaver said of the Secret Service’s response.
Security Failures Documented
Multiple Secret Service agents were suspended without pay over their handling of the rally. An inspector general report found that “the Secret Service’s overall lack of policy and processes, coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff and state and local law enforcement, set the conditions that led to missing opportunities to prevent and detect the attempted assassination.”
The attack killed one man, left Copenhaver and Dutch severely wounded, and came within inches of killing the future president.
