Two years after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Jim Copenhaver — a 76-year-old veteran who had been struck by two bullets — died in a Pittsburgh hospital from complications that never fully relented. His death closes a chapter that began in July 2024, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd gathered around a presidential candidate, killing one man instantly and wounding others. Copenhaver's long passage from that rooftop's gunfire to his final hospital bed is a reminder that the human cost of a single violent moment rarely ends when the shooting sto
Trump rally shooting survivor Jim Copenhaver dies from injuries two years later
Jim Copenhaver, 76, died from injuries sustained in the shooting; another attendee was killed immediately and a third was wounded.
One bullet lodged near his spine and never came out
Mark
So Copenhaver was shot twice and survived the initial attack. What changed between then and his death two years later?
Mimi
The bullets did damage that his body couldn't fully repair. One lodged near his spine. He had surgeries, infections, complications that kept compounding. By a year after the shooting, he was walking with a cane. That's not recovery—that's adaptation to permanent injury.
Luke
Do we know the exact medical cause of death? The reporting says "complications stemming from his injuries," but that's broad. Was it infection, organ failure, something else?
Mimi
The medical examiner confirmed the death but the specific cause hasn't been detailed in public statements. We know the trajectory—bullet wounds, surgeries, infections—but the final mechanism isn't spelled out.
Mark
He was a veteran. Did that shape how he responded to what happened?
Mimi
His family's attorney said his love of country never wavered, that service was a defining part of his life. Whether that made the injury harder or easier to bear, we don't really know. But it seems to have mattered to how people understood him.
Luke
Trump called him a patriot, the House Republicans praised his perseverance. But Copenhaver and the other survivor sued the federal government in June. That's a different kind of statement than the tributes.
Mimi
Yes. The lawsuit says the Secret Service failed to keep them safe. That's not about patriotism or perseverance—it's about accountability for a security failure that had lasting consequences.
Mark
Did the lawsuit go anywhere before he died?
Luke
The reporting doesn't say. We know it was filed in June, but there's no update on its status or outcome. That's a gap worth noting.
The Pulse
- A bullet lodged near Copenhaver's spine refused to yield — two years of surgeries, infections, and a cane became the quiet, grinding aftermath of a few seconds of gunfire.
- His death on September 25, 2026 transforms what was already a historically significant attack into a tragedy with a second fatality, deepening the wound in the national memory of that day.
- Copenhaver and fellow survivor David Dutch had escalated their fight beyond recovery, suing the federal government in June 2026 over Secret Service failures — a legal reckoning still unresolved at the time of his death.
- Political tributes poured in swiftly, with Trump calling him a 'true American patriot,' but the lawsuit he helped file suggests Copenhaver himself believed remembrance without accountability was not enough.
Two years after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Jim Copenhaver — a 76-year-old veteran who had been struck by two bullets — died in a Pittsburgh hospital from complications that never fully relented. His death closes a chapter that began in July 2024, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd gathered around a presidential candidate, killing one man instantly and wounding others. Copenhaver's long passage from that rooftop's gunfire to his final hospital bed is a reminder that the human cost of a single violent moment rarely ends when the shooting stops.
Jim Copenhaver was standing in the crowd at Donald Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July 2024 when Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old gunman, opened fire from a nearby rooftop. Two bullets struck Copenhaver — one in his arm, one in his abdomen. Another attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed immediately. Trump's ear was grazed. Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents. Copenhaver walked away from that day alive, but the injuries would not let him go.
Over the two years that followed, he endured repeated surgeries and infections. One bullet remained lodged near his spine, impossible to safely remove, and he learned to navigate his days with a cane. In an interview a year after the shooting, he described the slow erosion of his physical independence — the procedures, the setbacks, the life reshaped around damage that would not heal.
On September 25, 2026, Copenhaver died at a Pittsburgh hospital from complications tied to those wounds. He was 76. The Allegheny County medical examiner confirmed his death. His family's attorney noted that his love of country had defined him to the end — a sentiment echoed in tributes from Trump and House Republicans, who called him a man of strength and perseverance.
Yet Copenhaver had not waited passively for remembrance. In June 2026, he and fellow survivor David Dutch filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that Secret Service failures had made the shooting possible and that the agency bore legal responsibility for what followed. The suit remained active at the time of his death — a formal insistence that the consequences of that July afternoon extended far beyond the moment the gunfire began, and that someone beyond the gunman himself should answer for them.
Jim Copenhaver was 76 years old when he stood in a crowd at Donald Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on a July day in 2024. A gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. Two bullets struck Copenhaver—one in his arm, another in his abdomen. A third attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed. A fourth person, the candidate himself, had his ear grazed. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents.
Copenhaver survived that day, but the injuries never fully released him. Over the following two years, he endured multiple surgeries and infections as his body tried to heal around the damage. One of the bullets lodged itself near his spine and remained there. He learned to walk with a cane. In an interview with CBS News a year after the shooting, he described the ongoing medical ordeal—the procedures, the complications, the slow erosion of his physical independence.
On Wednesday, September 25, 2026, Copenhaver died at a hospital in Pittsburgh from complications related to those injuries. He was two years and nearly three months removed from the moment the gunfire started. The Allegheny County medical examiner confirmed his death.
Copenhaver was a veteran who had served in the armed forces. According to a statement from his family's attorney, his love of country had never wavered—it was a defining part of who he was. Trump posted a tribute on Truth Social, calling him a "true American patriot" and referencing the "crazed gunman" who had attempted to "stifle our America First Movement." The statement extended condolences to Copenhaver's wife, Marianne. Republicans in the House of Representatives also issued a statement, saying Copenhaver had "endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance."
But Copenhaver and David Dutch, the third person wounded that day, had taken a different path months before his death. In June 2026, both men sued the federal government, arguing that the Secret Service had failed to ensure their safety at the rally and was therefore liable for their injuries. The lawsuit represented a formal assertion that the security failures that allowed the shooting to happen had consequences that extended far beyond the moment of impact—that they had reshaped the lives of survivors in ways that demanded accountability.
Notable Quotes
Jim endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance— House Republicans, in a statement on Friday
As a veteran, he proudly served our nation in the armed forces, and his love of country never wavered— Copenhaver family attorney, in statement to CBS News
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