BUTLER, Pa. — Two men shot this summer in the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump say the U.S. Secret Service was “negligent” in protecting the former president and other bystanders at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
David Dutch, 57, an ex-Marine, and James Copenhaver, 74, a retired liquor store manager, said NBC News in an exclusive interview Monday they were excited as they sat in the stands behind the Republican candidate at the fairgrounds in Butler on July 13 when gunshots rang out and they were hit.
Another man, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed in the shooting while protecting his family. Trump was injured in the ear.
The interview with the two critically wounded Pennsylvania men marked their first public statement since 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby in July before being fatally shot by snipers.
“It was like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer,” said Dutch, who served in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm during his time in the Marines from 1986 to 1992. He said he could see bits of bleach and metal. flying everywhere” until the shooting stopped.
Dutch said Monday that he was still “angry that the whole situation even happened. It should never have happened.” NBC News reported that lawyers for the two men said they were exploring possible lawsuits over what they consider Secret Service negligence.
“It wouldn’t have happened if it was safe,” Copenhaver said.
Kimberly Cheatle, then director of the Secret Service, called the attempt on Trump’s life at the Pennsylvania rally the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure in decades.” She resigned this summer after lawmakers called on her to resign.
Trump returned to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was earlier this month almost killed in July, urging a large crowd to secure an Election Day victory that he tied to his survival of the shooting.