Thomas Matthew Crooks claims last victim as Jim Copenhaver dies after complications from being shot during Butler, PA assassination attempt

A source close to the family told Ken Silva for Headline USA of Copenhaver’s passing. Additional details regarding Copenhaver’s death were not revealed.

Copenhaver, as well as David Dutch, were shot and injured at the Trump rally that took place on July 13, 2024 in Pennsylvania. Another attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally shot. Trump was also grazed by a bullet. The attempted assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was fatally shot by authorities.

Copenhaver and his wife filed a lawsuit against the federal government in June for negligence, in which the lasting extent of his injuries was revealed. The suit said that Copenhaver suffered “grievous, serious, permanent and debilitating personal and other injuries” from the shooting.

The lawsuit said that Copenhaver had to undergo extensive surgeries while in the ICU following the shooting, suffered from significant blood loss, an injury to his kidney, embolism, and other conditions, and had bullet fragments left in his body. The suit said that he would have had to undergo additional future surgeries and medical care.

Speaking with local news around one year after the shooting, Copenhaver recounted being shot. “I was standing up looking at the Jumbotron behind me, and 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. But I turned around, and that's when I got the second shot. So, the second shot didn't hit bone. Mine went into all soft material. It was like a jolt. I didn't knock me over, but I didn't want to stand anymore.”

He said that he requires a cane to walk, and that one bullet had torn into his tricep, while the other, which was stuck in his body, took out a portion of his colon and left him with nerve damage.

"Unfortunately, it's lodged right next to my spine and hit a nerve," he said. "And so my leg was unsteady, but I grabbed hold of the railing and I went down with my body that way, and I laid on the bleachers."