Months after a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, Butler County officials have released 911 calls from that day.
One redacted call came from the wife of a 74-year-old shooting victim from Moon Township, telling police her husband was shot at the rally, but she does not know what hospital he was transported to. James Copenhaver, a 74-year-old man from Moon Township, was shot and critically wounded at the rally.
“Paramedics serviced him. I called Butler Hospital. He’s not there. They told me to call 911,” the woman can be heard telling a dispatcher.
The dispatcher tells her to stay on the line and not hang up.
“I won’t,” she says.
Other 911 calls released by Butler County give more insight into the moment gunman Thomas Crooks fired approximately eight times, nicking Trump in the ear, killing Corey Comperatore, and injuring Copenhaver and another man named David Dutch.
“We’re at the Butler Farm Show. We need assistance now,” says another.
“We’re at the Trump assembly, and there’s a guy shooting,” another caller can be heard telling dispatchers.
Listen to the chilling audio below:
The calls reveal a chaotic scene after shots rang out at the rally, with attendees unaware whether the shooter was an active threat to those attending the event.
Investigation revealed that Crooks had accessed the roof of a nearby building by climbing HVAC equipment and piping on the side of the building, which was outside the official perimeters of the rally but less than 200 yards from where Trump was speaking on stage.
A local officer with Butler County identified where the shots were coming from, located the shooter, and fired one round at Crooks with his rifle, “which caused the shooter to recoil and briefly fall out of sight,” Adams Township Police Department Sgt. Edward Lenz testified in September.
A Secret Service counter sniper then fired the fatal shot that neutralized Crooks on the roof of the AGR building, where he was perched with a direct line of sight to Trump.
