James "Jim" Copenhaver, one of three spectators shot when a gunman opened fire at Donald Trump's 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has died at age 76 — reviving scrutiny of the Secret Service security failures he'd been suing over when he passed.

Copenhaver died Wednesday at Allegheny Health Network's West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, "surrounded by his loved ones," his family's attorney said. The House Republican Conference announced his death Thursday, saying he had been "gravely wounded" on July 13, 2024, and "endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance" in the fourteen months since.

He was struck twice as gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from a nearby rooftop at the Butler Farm Show grounds: one round tore through his triceps, another entered his abdomen, damaging his colon and a kidney and leaving him with permanent nerve damage and bullet fragments still lodged in his body. He required multiple surgeries and had been walking with a cane ever since, according to reporting carried by NPR affiliate Houston Public Media.

The same attack killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter who shielded his family from the gunfire, wounded fellow rallygoer David Dutch, and grazed Trump's right ear before Secret Service snipers killed Crooks. Copenhaver was released from the hospital about a week after the shooting.

A lawsuit left unresolved

Earlier this year, Copenhaver and his wife filed a federal lawsuit against the United States alleging Secret Service negligence in security planning and site access at the rally, seeking more than $150,000 in damages for injuries the complaint described as "significant, grievous and permanent." The case remained pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania at the time of his death, according to Fox 5 DC's report on his death, which cited Fox News and Associated Press reporting.

"I WAS STANDING UP LOOKING AT THE JUMBOTRON BEHIND ME, AND NEXT THING I KNOW MY SLEEVE HAS BEEN YANKED." — Jim Copenhaver, describing the moment he was shot

President Trump, who has repeatedly referenced the Butler shooting on the campaign trail and in office, mourned Copenhaver on Truth Social, writing that "Jim Copenhaver, a true American Patriot, has passed away — A tremendous loss!" according to wire reporting distributed via Yahoo News. The House GOP conference's statement did not specify a cause of death or say whether it was tied directly to his 2024 wounds.

Copenhaver's death lands as the Butler shooting continues to reverberate through Washington. Congressional investigators and multiple internal reviews have faulted the Secret Service for the security gaps that let Crooks reach an unsecured rooftop with a line of sight to the stage, findings that fueled leadership shakeups at the agency and remain central to the negligence claims Copenhaver's estate is now expected to pursue.

No court date had been set in the Copenhaver family's lawsuit as of this week. With Copenhaver's death now part of the record, attorneys say the litigation is likely to continue under his estate, keeping the Secret Service's handling of the rally in legal — and political — view as the case proceeds.