James Copenhaver, the 74-year-old Trump supporter shot twice at the July 13, 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania rally, has died from complications, a preventable tragedy rooted in Secret Service failures that a congressional task force called avoidable.
Copenhaver died Thursday, the House Republican Conference confirmed in an obituary posted on social media. He had spent the past two years enduring multiple surgeries, chronic pain, and bullet fragments that doctors never fully removed from his body. He was in his mid-70s and lived in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a small borough west of Pittsburgh.
Journalist Ken Silva, who wrote a book about the assassination attempt, reported on his website that a person close to Copenhaver's family confirmed the death and said Copenhaver had been dealing with permanent injuries, including bullet fragments still lodged in his body. Fox News Digital reached out to a Pittsburgh-area law firm connected to the family for comment.
Copenhaver's death makes him the second person killed as a result of the attack at the Butler Farm Show complex, a shooting that a bipartisan House task force later concluded was entirely preventable.
On July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks scaled the roof of a glass manufacturing building near the rally site and opened fire on the crowd. Copenhaver was hit twice. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old Butler County firefighter, was killed in the bleachers behind the stage while shielding his wife and daughter. David Dutch, a 57-year-old former Marine, took two rounds to his chest and liver.
In a 2025 interview with Pittsburgh's KDKA, Copenhaver described the moment the first bullet struck him:
"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 said a second round followed almost immediately. Both bullets, he told KDKA, went "into soft material." The impact didn't knock him down, but it changed everything.
"It was like a jolt. It didn't knock me over, but I didn't want to stand anymore."
Copenhaver was rushed to Allegheny General Hospital, where he remained for weeks. Breitbart reported that he was eventually discharged, with his family issuing a statement thanking first responders, medics, and hospital staff for their care. But discharge was not recovery. By October 2024, Copenhaver had lost 30 pounds, walked with a cane, and suffered ongoing abdominal pain.
Jondavid Longo, the mayor of nearby Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, who had spoken at the Butler rally that day, posted a tribute on X after Copenhaver's death:
"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 that Butler County "still carries that afternoon" and offered prayers for Marianne and the Copenhaver family.
Earlier this year, Copenhaver filed a federal civil lawsuit against the United States, alleging that the security failures at Butler forced him to undergo multiple surgeries. The full details of the complaint, including the court where it was filed and the specific damages sought, have not been publicly reported in detail. The lawsuit's current status remains unclear.
Copenhaver was not alone in pointing the finger at the Secret Service. In October 2024, both he and Dutch spoke publicly for the first time about the shooting. Dutch, who still could not drive or lift more than 10 pounds months after the attack, was blunt. The New York Post reported Dutch's assessment:
"I believe there was 100% negligence on the Secret Service, probably everybody involved in setting that security, down to inter-department communications. The negligence was vast. It was terrible."
Copenhaver echoed that view more quietly: "I'm sure there was negligence. It wouldn't have happened, had it been secure."
The scale of the security breakdown at Butler has been documented extensively. Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, had been at the rally site for 70 minutes before he fired. He flew a drone over the fairgrounds. He was flagged as "suspicious" nearly 30 minutes before the first shot. None of it stopped him.
National Review reported that in the 24 hours before the attack, Crooks visited a sportsmen's club to practice shooting, bought 50 rounds of ammunition at a local gun shop, and purchased a five-foot ladder at a Home Depot. Investigators believe he acted alone. His motive has never been established.
Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned less than two weeks after the shooting, taking responsibility for the security lapse. She had cited the slope of the roof Crooks used as a reason it was not secured, a claim that drew sharp criticism. Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, a member of the bipartisan House task force investigating the attack, climbed onto that same roof and later told Fox News Digital he found it easy to scale. The task force's final conclusion: the attack was preventable, and failures in planning, execution, and leadership made it possible.
Six Secret Service agents were eventually suspended without pay in connection with the failures at Butler. The agency's troubles did not end there. Three additional Secret Service officials were later placed on leave amid intensifying threats against the Trump family, a separate but related reminder of the agency's persistent shortcomings.
The threat landscape around President Trump has only grown more serious since Butler. Israeli intelligence revealed a fresh Iranian assassination plot targeting Trump, and Trump himself has acknowledged the danger publicly, telling reporters he believes he is "on every list."
Comperatore, the firefighter killed instantly in the bleachers, was honored at the Republican National Convention days after the shooting, where Trump kissed his helmet on stage. Trump returned to the Butler Farm Show complex in October 2024, less than three months after the assassination attempt, to hold another rally at the same site and pay tribute to Comperatore.
Dutch, the former Marine, survived but was left with severe physical limitations. The Washington Examiner reported that Dutch was released from Allegheny General Hospital after nearly two weeks of recovery from two gunshot wounds to the chest and liver. His injuries were described as life-altering.
And now Copenhaver is gone. The man who survived two bullets, endured years of surgeries, and filed a lawsuit demanding accountability from the government that failed to protect him never got the chance to see that case through.
The House Republican Conference mourned him in a statement posted online:
"Jim endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance. We join his family and loved ones in mourning his loss and praying for them during this difficult time. May he rest in peace."
The threats against Trump have not subsided. An armed man carrying weapons, body armor, and a fake security badge was arrested at a Trump golf club in California, one of several incidents underscoring the ongoing danger.
James Copenhaver went to a rally to hear a presidential candidate speak. He left on a stretcher. He spent two years paying for someone else's failure. The people responsible for securing that event owe him, and the public, far more than a resignation letter and a handful of suspensions.
