One of the bystanders shot by a gunman trying to assassinate President Trump during a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania died on Thursday.
James Copenhaver, 76, of Moon Township, died two years after sustaining serious injuries from the attack in Butler.
His family announced that he died Thursday in a statement issued through their attorney, but it neither included a cause of death nor specified whether it was related to the shooting.
“A tremendous loss!” Mr. Trump posted to social media. “After being wounded while protecting his family, Jim showed tremendous bravery, courageously continuing to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, and maintaining a positive spirit despite unimaginable hardships. His indelible legacy of love and devotion will forever endure.”
Mr. Copenhaver was hit by two of the eight rounds that Thomas Crooks fired toward Mr. Trump. He was seated in the bleachers behind the stage where Mr. Trump was speaking, along with two other bystanders who were shot on July 13, 2024.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter from Sarver, Pennsylvania, died that day.
David Dutch of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who was shot in his abdomen, and Mr. Copenhaver lived but never fully recovered from their injuries, which they described in an interview last year with Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA.
Mr. Copenhaver told the outlet that one of the bullets tore through his tricep and the other took out chunks of his colon and left him with permanent nerve damage.
“It was like a jolt, but it didn’t knock me over,” he said, describing the moment he was shot.
“But I didn’t want to stand any more either, because unfortunately, it’s lodged in right next to my spine and hit a nerve, and so my leg was unsteady. But I grabbed hold of the railing and I went down with, with my body that way, and I laid on the bleachers,” he said.
Mr. Copenhaver said “a hand from a superior entity” led to his survival.
Mr. Dutch, who was 57 at the time of the shooting, said he suffered broken ribs, still has bullet fragments in his abdomen and has struggled to regain his strength.
Mr. Trump was hit by a bullet that grazed his ear but did not suffer any serious injuries.
Crooks, who was firing at Mr. Trump from the rooftop of a nearby building, more than 400 feet away from the rally stage, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
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