Politics
JUST IN: Marine Injured At Trump Rally Officially Released From Hospital
David Dutch, a military veteran who was seriously wounded during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month, has been discharged from the hospital.
Dutch, 57, was released from Allegheny General Hospital in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after undergoing 11 days of treatment, including surgery for bullet wounds suffered in the chest and liver, hospital officials told the New York Post. The Trump supporter was one of two attendees at a July 13th rally in Butler where Trump was struck in the ear by a round and another rallygoer was killed. The 20-year-old gunman was shot and killed by a team of snipers seconds after opening fire.
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Immediately following the shooting, the New Kensington man was rushed to the hospital and put into a medically induced coma while acute care doctors triaged his bullet wounds and treated him in multiple surgeries, according to the Marine Corps League’s (MCL) Department of Pennsylvania. Another rally participant, James Copenhaver, is still fighting for his life in a serious but stable condition. The 74-year-old father is a resident of Moon Township and experienced “life-altering injuries” after being shot, according to a statement by the family.
A third victim, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter and “girl dad,” was struck in the face and killed instantly. The father of two daughters died shielding his family on stage from the gunfire and tragically was not initially planning to be front and center that day. According to a relative, Comperatore and his family were comped front row seats by others on stage who noticed him helping his daughters try and get a better view of the Republican president they loved and came to see.
Gunman Thomas Crooks was neutralized after firing eight or more rounds at Trump and the stage but before he could turn his gun on others in the crowd. On Tuesday the former director of the Secret Service resigned following a blistering congressional hearing where she accepted responsibility for the worst security failure in decades. On Wednesday FBI Director Christopher Wray provided lawmakers with an update on the federal investigation, including discoveries that Crooks used a drone to canvass the rally site just hours earlier. Crooks also searched for information about the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, including how far shooter Lee Harvey Oswald was from his motorcade when he fired the kill shot in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963.
President Trump has praised his Secret Service detail for immediately tackling him to the ground to protect him from further gunfire. During his speech at the Republican National Convention last week, the 45th president thanked higher powers for surviving the ordeal. “You’ll never hear it from me again a second time because it’s too painful to tell,” Trump told a hushed audience on Thursday. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”
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