James Copenhaver, one of three attendees shot during an assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally, has died. His death was reported on Thursday, September 24, 2026.
The shooting occurred on July 13, 2024, during an open-air rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Pennsylvania. At the time, Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election. The incident resulted in the death of another attendee, Corey Comperatore, and the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
During the rally, Crooks fired eight rounds from a DPMS Panther Arms DR-15 semi-automatic rifle from the roof of a nearby building. The gunfire struck Trump in his upper right ear and critically injured two other audience members, including Copenhaver. A member of the Butler County Emergency Service Unit fired at the gunman four seconds after the shooting began, hitting his rifle, before the U.S. Secret Service Counter Sniper Team killed Crooks 12 seconds later.
The assassination attempt led to administrative changes. Kimberly Cheatle, then the director of the U.S. Secret Service, resigned on July 23, 2024, following a congressional hearing where she faced bipartisan calls to step down. President Joe Biden ordered an independent review of the security arrangements at the site, which was later described as the agency's most significant failure since 1981.
The scale of the incident's aftermath involved a total of three deaths—Comperatore, Crooks, and now Copenhaver—and between six to seven total injuries. In response to the failure to prevent the 20-year-old gunman from firing eight rounds, the U.S. Secret Service implemented new safety measures for outdoor events. These changes included the use of bulletproof glass for major candidates at outdoor rallies. The incident also sparked public distrust, with polling conducted a month after the shooting showing that over 50% of Americans believed the perpetrator did not act alone.
The effects of the shooting extended to the U.S. government, leading to the resignation of the Secret Service director and an ongoing federal investigation. As of September 2026, the FBI website for the Butler investigation continues to list the motive for the attack as unknown. Future policy regarding candidate protection remains under scrutiny as independent reviews and congressional oversight committees continue to evaluate the failure of the security perimeter that allowed a sniper to access a nearby roof. No further court dates or legislative votes related to this specific casualty were reported.