Butler Rally Shooting Victim Jim Copenhaver Dies Two Years After Assassination Attempt on Trump

James “Jim” Copenhaver, one of two spectators critically wounded when a gunman opened fire on Donald Trump at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, died Wednesday in Pittsburgh. He was 76. His family, speaking through attorney Joseph A. Feldman, said he died at Allegheny Health Network’s West Penn Hospital surrounded by loved ones. The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said the cause and manner of death are pending, but complications from the shooting and subsequent surgeries are suspected.

Copenhaver, of Moon Township, was in the bleachers to Trump’s left at the Butler Farm Show grounds when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight rounds from the roof of a nearby building. A Secret Service counter-sniper killed Crooks. One shot grazed Trump’s right ear. Retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed shielding his wife and daughters. Marine veteran David Dutch was shot in the chest and liver and survived. Copenhaver was hit in the triceps and abdomen. He later told KDKA he did not realize he had been shot until a second round struck him. He spent about two weeks in the hospital, underwent multiple surgeries including a colon transection, wore a colostomy bag for at least a year, and walked with a cane. A lawsuit he and his wife, Marianne, filed against the United States in June described the wounds as permanent and life-altering and alleged the Secret Service and Homeland Security “utterly failed” to secure the site. Feldman said one bullet remained lodged in his body and that he had nerve damage and other lingering injuries.

House Republicans announced the death Thursday and called Copenhaver a man who “showed tremendous bravery” after being wounded. Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo wrote that Copenhaver “survived that day, but he never fully recovered,” living two years with surgeries, remaining fragments, and pain. A friend, Albert Quaye, told The New York Times Copenhaver had recovered enough to live independently and no longer needed the colostomy bag; Quaye said the cause of death was still under investigation. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has been quoted as linking the death to complications from the shooting. The medical examiner has not issued that finding. Feldman described Copenhaver as a veteran whose “dedication to this great country was a defining part of his life” and as a husband, father, and grandfather. The family thanked the public for support after what they called a “horrible, senseless, and unnecessary act of violence.”

President Trump posted on Truth Social that “Jim Copenhaver, a true American Patriot, has passed away – A tremendous loss!” He tied the death to the Butler attack, writing that more than two years ago “a crazed gunman attempted to stifle our America First Movement.” Crooks’s motive has never been established by the FBI. A DHS inspector general review later found the Secret Service missed multiple chances to detect and stop him before he reached the roof. Comperatore remains the only spectator officially listed as killed at the scene. Copenhaver’s death, if later ruled a consequence of those wounds, would be the second attendee fatality tied to the rally.