James Copenhaver, of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, who was wounded in a failed assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in 2024, has died, according to several reports.
Copenhaver, in his mid-70s, was one of several people who attempted assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at the Butler Farm Show complex outside Butler, Pennsylvania, after Crooks scaled the roof of a nearby glass manufacturing building and took aim at the then-presidential candidate.
A person who answered a phone number connected to Copenhaver’s family directed Fox News Digital to a Pittsburgh-area law firm for confirmation and further comment.
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The House Republican Conference posted an obituary for Copenhaver on social media, saying he had died Thursday and that lawmakers were “deeply saddened.”
“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 caucus said in a statement.
Ken Silva, a journalist who wrote a book about the assassination attempt, wrote on his website that a person close to Copenhaver’s family also confirmed Copenhaver had died and had been dealing with permanent injuries, including bullet fragments still lodged in his body.
David Dutch was also wounded in the shooting but survived. Butler County firefighter Corey Comperatore was shot and killed in the bleachers behind Trump’s dais that day.
Speaking to Pittsburgh’s KDKA in 2025, Copenhaver said he stood to look at the jumbotron behind him as Trump spoke.
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“Next thing I know, my sleeve has been yanked,” he said. “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 he was then shot a second time but that the bullets both “went into soft material.”
“It was like a jolt. It didn’t knock me over, but I didn’t want to stand anymore,” he told the station.
A lawsuit Copenhaver filed against the United States earlier this year alleged he was also required to undergo multiple surgeries.
Mayor Jondavid Longo of nearby Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania — who spoke at the Butler rally — mourned Copenhaver’s reported death Thursday.
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“[Copenhaver] 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 said in a statement on X.
“Butler County still carries that afternoon. May he rest in peace. Prayers for Marianne and the Copenhaver family.”
The attack triggered intense scrutiny of the Secret Service after investigations uncovered breakdowns in planning, communication and security around the rally site. Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned less than two weeks later, taking responsibility for the security lapse. A subsequent bipartisan House task force concluded the Butler attack was preventable and identified failures in planning, execution and leadership.
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One of the Republican lawmakers on that task force, Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, climbed onto the roof Crooks used to take aim at Trump and later told Fox News Digital he was incredulous at how easy it was to scale after Cheatle had cited the roof’s slope in explaining why it was not secured.
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Six Secret Service agents were later suspended without pay in connection with the failures.
Trump returned to Butler in October 2024, less than three months after the assassination attempt, to hold another rally at the same site and honor Comperatore.
Trump’s raised fist and mouthing of the word “fight” became a lasting image of the assassination attempt that he used throughout his successful campaign to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
