Politics

Trump Butler Assassination Attempt Victim Dies After Suffering From Wounds Following Attack

Former President Donald Trump being escorted from the stage by Secret Service agents after he was wounded in an attempted assassination, July 13, 2024. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

A man wounded in the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump has died, according to a statement released by his family Thursday.

Trump’s right ear was grazed by a bullet when a gunman fired shots during a campaign rally, killing retired firefighter Corey Compatore and wounding two other attendees. Jim Copenhaver, one of those wounded, died, according to his family and Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo.

“James’s dedication to this great country was a defining part of his life. As a veteran, he proudly served our nation in the armed forces, and his love of country never wavered. James was a true American patriot who believed deeply in the freedoms and ideals upon which this nation was founded, and he embodied the very best traits of our great nation,” the Copenhaver family said in a statement provided to Fox News.

“Jim was shot twice at the Butler rally on July 13, 2024,” Longo posted. “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.”

Copenhaver sued the Secret Service on June 1 regarding the shooting, saying the Secret Service displayed “negligence, recklessness and/or carelessness” prior to would-be-assassin Thomas Crooks opening fire on Trump. Attorneys representing Copenhaver in the case did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“It’s no secret that Jim was dealing with permanent injuries from Butler—including having bullet fragments still inside of him,” Ken Silva, editor of HeadlineUSA, posted on X Thursday.

“Due to the failures of the USSS, a twenty-year-old individual who was observed to be acting erratically in the hours before the shooting and who was the subject of an intensive search, managed to climb onto the roof of a building and fire eight shots before being killed by a counter-sniper,” the complaint stated.

The Secret Service came under fire following the attempted assassination for not only reported security failures at the event, but also for not providing immediate answers to questions surrounding the incident that left Trump wounded. Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned ten days after the assassination attempt following testimony before the House Oversight Committee.