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Second Victim of 2024 Trump Rally Shooting Dies

12 sources · updated 2026-09-25
Left 40% Center 0% Right 60%
2 left · 0 center · 3 right

What happened

James “Jim” Copenhaver, 76, died Wednesday at Allegheny Health Network’s West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, two years after being shot at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally for then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired from a nearby rooftop, killing attendee Corey Comperatore, wounding Copenhaver and David Dutch, and grazing Trump’s ear before a Secret Service counter-sniper killed Crooks; Copenhaver was hit in the triceps and abdomen, injuries that required surgeries including a colon transection and left him with nerve damage, remaining bullet fragments, and a cane. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said Copenhaver died “from complications stemming from those wounds”; attorney Joseph Feldman said he died surrounded by loved ones, but the family statement did not specify a cause, and the Allegheny County medical examiner said the cause and manner of death were pending. In June, Copenhaver and his wife sued the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security, alleging they had “utterly failed” to provide appropriate security at the rally.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 5 articles

5 of 5 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 5 of 5
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Allegheny County medical examiner, Donald Trump, US House of Representatives Republicans, President Trump, Pennsylvania attorney general and attorney for Copenhaver's family
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 5
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: statement
Credits another outlet 0 of 5
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 5
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 25, 13:23 UTC by BBC, naming its source. First document in the first report, from BBC (statement).
Not counted 0
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Left-leaning coverage often withholds a causal link that right-leaning coverage asserts, which decides whether the Butler attack now has two civilian dead. The family statement, as reported by NBC News, did not give a cause of death. The same news appeared on OAN as the rally's "2nd fatality." That difference changes whether the shooting's death toll stopped with Corey Comperatore. Word choice on the shooter splits in the same direction and tells the reader what kind of act this was. Trump's phrase "crazed gunman" appeared in right-leaning Daily Wire coverage. Investigators never established a motive in left-leaning NBC News coverage, which did not echo that language. What did the Allegheny County medical examiner rule as the cause of death?
Bottom line

NBC News left the cause of death blank while OAN counted a second rally fatality, so those two audiences do not even agree how many spectators the Butler shooting killed.

The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • The death marks a 2nd fatality from the rally numberin OAN · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • The Allegheny County medical examiner said cause and manner of death are pending official statementin ABC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Mayor Jondavid Longo said Copenhaver never fully recovered from the wounds individual casein Daily Wire, Daily Caller · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said Copenhaver died from complications stemming from the wounds official statementin BBC, CBS News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • The family statement did not specify if the death was directly related to the rally injuries official statementin ABC News, Guardian · absent from right-leaning coverage
The Left View
Several left-leaning outlets treated causation as unsettled, stressing that the family statement did not specify a cause and that the medical examiner listed cause and manner as pending, rather than declaring a second rally fatality. Coverage foregrounded the June lawsuit’s claim that the Secret Service and Homeland Security had “utterly failed,” and ABC News carried Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s statement that the “political violence” in Butler “is never okay” and that “we all have a responsibility to take down the temperature, rise above hateful rhetoric.” The death was generally framed as a somber account of a veteran and family man whose wounds were “life-altering,” with Trump’s tribute noted but not used as the lead interpretation.
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets presented the death as the second fatality of the Butler assassination attempt, citing the attorney general’s attribution to wound complications and Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo’s statement that Copenhaver “never fully recovered” and lived two years with “surgeries, remaining fragments, and pain that never left him.” They gave prominent space to President Trump’s tribute calling him a “true American Patriot” who continued to “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” after a “crazed gunman attempted to stifle our America First Movement.” Daily Caller and allied coverage also tied the outcome to alleged Secret Service failures in the lawsuit—that a 20-year-old “observed to be acting erratically” reached a rooftop and fired eight shots—and recalled then-Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is evidentiary caution: the family did not state a cause, and the medical examiner said cause and manner were still pending, so calling this a confirmed second rally fatality outruns the record those outlets emphasize. The right’s strongest argument is the attorney general’s attribution to complications from the wounds, reinforced by two years of documented surgeries, retained fragments, and pain that “never left him,” which they treat as making the shooting the but-for cause. The central unresolved tension is whether, without a completed medical-examiner determination, Copenhaver’s death should be counted as a delayed fatality of the July 13, 2024 attack.

12 sources

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