911 recordings from Butler County Trump rally shooting include wife of 74-year-old victim
The wife of a 74-year-old Moon Township man called 911 after learning her husband was shot at the July 13 campaign rally for former President Donald Trump.
The woman, whose name is redacted in the recording, told police her husband was shot at the event, and she did not know where he was taken. James Copenhaver, 74, of 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 told the dispatcher.
“Don’t hang up,” the dispatcher tells her in the call.
“I won’t,” the woman replies.
Recordings of 911 calls received by Butler County dispatchers on July 13 convey a sense of chaos and uncertainty after the gunfire at the Butler Farm Show grounds. One Buffalo Township man, Corey Comperatore, died, two men — including Copenhaver — were critically injured and Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet. The gunman, of Bethel Park, was shot and killed by a countersniper.
The Butler County Commissioners approved a consent order Wednesday, Oct. 23, to settle Right-to-Know Law appeals by providing news organizations with redacted copies of 911 calls made during the July 13 Trump rally.
“Gunshot wound ... Gunshots at the trump rally... gunshots,” one caller said, only some of her words cutting through the noise at the event.
“Yes, police are on the way there,” a dispatcher replied.
“Better get over here quick,” the voice on the call answered before the end of the recording.
A majority of the 15 recordings released are under 30 seconds long, and commotion can be heard on the callers’ end in almost all of the recordings that originate from the farm show grounds. Loud crying and screaming can be heard in at least one.
Some of the callers tell the dispatchers about the shooting, while others report hearing gunshots, injuries or people fainting at the venue.
Some of the calls are difficult to hear, with speaking either being muffled or overpowered by background noise.
But the ones from off-site, like the wife of a gunshot wound victim’s, can be heard clearly.
After the woman gives her contact information to the dispatcher, she is told that she’ll have to wait for answers.
“I can’t honestly get you any information right at this very moment,” the dispatcher said. “We are going to find out what’s going on with your husband.”
The woman then explains that a friend had been with her husband and attempted to go with the paramedics.
“They wouldn’t let him because it’s a crime scene,” she said. “His friend called his wife, and his wife called me.”
Before the end of the call, the dispatcher promises several times to call back.
“Oh, please hurry, thank you,” the woman said before the recording ends.
Another call came from a person who was in North Carolina at the time, who told dispatch that his mother called him saying there was an active shooter at Trump’s rally.
“She called me in a panic from a random phone number, I’m just calling to pass that information,” the caller said.
NBC News, Scripps News and The Intercept filed petitions in September seeking to overturn denial of requests for the recordings made under the state’s Right-to-Know Law.
The county denied the request in July, saying recordings of 911 calls are generally exempt from disclosure under the Right-to-Know Law, the county has a policy to release 911 recordings under a court order or subpoena only, and the recordings were the subject of law enforcement investigation into the shootings at the rally.
The news organizations appealed that decision to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, which denied the appeal in August. The news organizations subsequently sued to have the transcripts released.
The consent order, which was entered Wednesday in the civil division of Butler County Common Pleas Court, comes after Judge Kelley Streib held a status conference on Oct. 15 with county solicitor Julie Graham and the attorney representing all three news organizations.
Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, said the county’s policy is aimed at avoiding a scenario in which people are afraid to call 911 in an emergency because they don’t want their calls to be released to the media and played publicly.
Osche added that the recordings do not contain any “aha” revelations about the assassination attempt.
