James Copenhaver, one of three rallygoers shot during the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, has died at 76 after two years of surgeries, pain, and bullet fragments that never left his body.
Copenhaver died on September 23, surrounded by his family, Fox News reported. The military veteran from Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, had endured multiple surgeries and permanent injuries since a gunman's bullet tore through his arm and lodged fragments deep inside his body at the Butler Farm Show complex more than two years ago. He never fully recovered.
His death makes him the second person to die from wounds sustained that day. Corey Comperatore, a Butler County volunteer firefighter, was killed in the bleachers behind Trump's stage when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from the roof of a nearby glass manufacturing building. A third rallygoer, David Dutch, was also seriously wounded but survived.
Copenhaver was shot twice. One round struck his triceps. Fragments tore through his colon and caused nerve damage that stayed with him for the rest of his life, Just The News reported. Bullet fragments remained lodged in his body. He underwent surgery after surgery. He filed a lawsuit against the United States earlier this year, alleging the government's failures forced him into that cycle of medical procedures and lasting pain.
In a 2025 interview with Pittsburgh's KDKA, Copenhaver described the moment he was hit. He did not realize at first that he had been shot.
"Next thing I know, my sleeve has been yanked. I could see a portion of it going by pretty fast, and I heard 'pew.' I heard it, and I didn't realize at the time that I had gotten shot."
He added simply: "It was like a jolt. It didn't knock me over, but I didn't want to stand anymore."
That was the last public account of the shooting from Copenhaver's own mouth. For two years, he lived with the aftermath, the surgeries, the fragments the doctors could not remove, the nerve damage, the pain. He was in his mid-70s when the shooting happened. He was 76 when he died.
The security breakdown that allowed Crooks to scale a rooftop within clear sightlines of the rally stage drew intense scrutiny from Congress and forced leadership changes at the Secret Service. Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned less than two weeks after the assassination attempt, taking responsibility for the lapse. She had cited the roof's slope in explaining why it was not secured, an explanation that satisfied almost no one.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican who served on the bipartisan House task force investigating the attack, climbed onto the same roof Crooks had used. He told Fox News Digital he found it remarkably easy to scale. The task force ultimately concluded the Butler shooting was preventable and identified failures in planning, execution, and leadership at the Secret Service. Six agents were suspended without pay in connection with those failures.
Copenhaver's lawsuit against the United States sits within that context. A congressional investigation said the attack should never have happened. The Secret Service's own director admitted responsibility and stepped down. And a 76-year-old man who went to a political rally spent his final two years paying the physical price for an agency's failures.
Trump returned to Butler in October 2024, less than three months after the shooting, to honor Comperatore at the same rally site. He went on to win the presidential election and become the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms. The moment he raised his fist and mouthed the word "fight" after the shooting became one of the defining images of his campaign.
Copenhaver's family released a statement through Fox News calling him "a true American patriot who believed deeply in the freedoms and ideals upon which this nation was founded."
President Trump mourned Copenhaver's passing on Truth Social.
"More than two years ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, a crazed gunman attempted to stifle our America First Movement."
Mayor Jondavid Longo of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, who had spoken at the Butler rally that day, posted his own tribute on X. His words captured what the shooting left behind, not just for one man, but for a community.
"He survived that day, but he never fully recovered from the wounds. For two years he lived with surgeries, remaining fragments, and pain that never left him. Those of us who were there that day have never forgotten Corey Comperatore, David Dutch, or Jim."
Longo added: "Butler County still carries that afternoon. May he rest in peace. Prayers for Marianne and the Copenhaver family."
The House Republican Conference posted an obituary on social media, calling Copenhaver a man who "endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance."
Journalist Ken Silva, who wrote a book about the assassination attempt, reported that a person close to the Copenhaver family confirmed the death and the permanent injuries, including the bullet fragments still lodged inside him, that defined his final years.
The status of Copenhaver's lawsuit against the United States remains unclear. No court or case details have been made public. The six Secret Service agents suspended without pay have not had their cases publicly resolved. And while a bipartisan task force assigned blame for the security failures, no criminal charges have been brought against any government official in connection with the breakdown that left three rallygoers shot and one firefighter dead.
James Copenhaver went to a rally, got shot because an agency failed to do its job, and spent two years living with the consequences. The people responsible for securing that event resigned, got suspended, or moved on. Copenhaver did not get that option.
