(Photo provided by family)

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (July 16, 2024) — The family of James Copenhaver, who was injured Saturday evening during the assassination attempt of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has issued the following statement:

The Copenhaver family would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support for James “Jim” as he recovers from the injuries that he tragically sustained during President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. Jim would like to especially thank the first responders, medics, and hospital staff who have provided him with initial and continuing care. Additionally, Jim would like to express his thoughts and prayers for the other victims, their families, and President Trump. He prays for a safe and speedy recovery for them all.

At this time, the Copenhaver family would kindly request that friends, the public, and the media respect the family’s privacy and allow for Jim to recover from the life-altering injuries that he sustained on July 13, 2024. There will be no further information released by the family at this time. All inquiries shall be directed to the Law Offices of Max C. Feldman at 412-262-6181 and with the legal representative’s approval to Dan Laurent with Allegheny Health Network. The Copenhaver family would like to thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support as Jim and his family recover from this horrible, senseless, and unnecessary act of violence.

Mr. Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pa., is one of two victims injured during the Butler County, Pa., assassination attempt who are receiving care at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He remains in critical but stable condition as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump first came to law enforcement’s attention at Saturday’s rally when spectators noticed him acting strangely outside the campaign event. The tip sparked a frantic search but officers were unable to find him before he managed to get on a roof, where he opened fire.

In the wake of the shooting that killed one spectator, investigators were hunting for any clues about what may have drove Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to carry out the shocking attack. The FBI said they were investigating it as a potential act of domestic terrorism, but the absence of a clear ideological motive by the man shot dead by the Secret Service led conspiracy theories to flourish.

“I urge everyone — everyone, please, don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said in remarks Sunday from the White House. “Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job. I’ve instructed that this investigation be thorough and swift.”

The FBI said it believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone. Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media accounts or ideological positions that could help explain what led him to target Trump before the Secret Service rushed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee off the stage, his face smeared with blood.

Trump said on social media the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting, but advisers said he was “great spirits” ahead of his arrival Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. Two spectators were critically injured, while a former fire chief from the area, Corey Comperatore was killed. Pennsylvania’s governor said Comperatore, 50, died a hero by diving onto his family to protect them.

Relatives of Crooks didn’t respond to numerous messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late Saturday that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but wouldn’t speak about his son until after he talked to law enforcement. An FBI official told reporters that Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators.

Several rallygoers reported to local officers that Crooks was acting suspiciously and pacing near the magnetometers, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. Officers were then told Crooks was climbing a ladder, the official said. Officers searched for him but were unable to find him before he made it to the roof, the official added.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the AP that a local officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who saw the officer and turned toward him just before the officer dropped down to safety. Slupe said the officer couldn’t have wielded his own gun under the circumstances. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, according to two officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

FBI officials said Sunday that they were combing Crooks’ background and social media activities while working to get access to his phone. The chatting app Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games, said Crooks appears to have had an account but used it rarely and not in the last several months. There’s no evidence he used his account to promote violence or discuss his political views, a Discord spokesperson said.

Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day Biden was sworn into office.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, Crooks can be seen crossing the stage to receive his diploma, appearing slight of build and wearing glasses. The school district said it will cooperate fully with investigators. His senior year, Crooks was among several students given an award for math and science, according to a Tribune-Review story at the time.

Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was turned away because he was a bad shooter, said Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.

Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. Other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits, Kohler said.

“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was just a outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.”

Crooks worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide, a job that generally involves food preparation. Marcie Grimm, the administrator of Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.

A blockade had been set up Sunday preventing traffic near Crooks’ house, which is in an enclave of modest brick houses in the hills outside Pittsburgh and about an hour’s drive from the site of the Trump rally. Police cars were stationed at an intersection near the house and officers were seen walking through the neighborhood.

Crooks used an AR-style rifle, which authorities said they believe was purchased by his father. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said that investigators do not yet know if he took the gun without his father’s permission.

A video posted to social media and geolocated by AP shows Crooks wearing a gray t-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.

The roof where Crooks lay was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. That is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.

Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by AP show he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of its creator firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins.

Matt Carriker, the Texas-based creator of Demolition Ranch, did not respond to a phone message or email on Sunday, but posted a photo of Crooks’ bloody corpse wearing his brand’s T-shirt on social media with the comment “What the hell.”

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Mustian reported from New York and Balsamo reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Julie Smyth, Lindsey Bahr and Joshua Bickel in Bethel Park, Michael R. Sisak and Randy Herschaft in New York, Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Md., and Colleen Long and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden listens during a visit to the D.C. Emergency Operations Center, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are trying to offer political counterprograming to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, announcing $15 million to fund campaign operations in seven key swing states — even as some in the party have urged President Joe Biden to bow out of November’s election.

The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday that it is investing $15 million in state parties, meant to help them open more field offices and bolster staffing. The funding will let them add to the 217 existing coordinated campaign offices working jointly for Biden’s reelection bid and state parties that already employ 1,100-plus staffers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the DNC said.

The investments will pump nearly $3 million into Wisconsin; nearly $2 million each into Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada; almost $1.5 million in Arizona; more than $1.2 million in North Carolina; and more than $1 million in Georgia.

The outlay was planned prior to former President Donald Trump being injured in an attempted assassination during his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, which prompted Biden and his campaign to temporarily shift its reelection strategy. Trump nonetheless is attending his party’s convention and will accept his party’s nomination on Thursday.

Trump’s campaign has spent recent weeks opening field offices, including those targeting key constituencies, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee.

“We have paid staffers and volunteer-powered field programs in every battleground state, and they are expanding daily,” Trump campaign spokesman Karoline Leavitt said. “Our aggressive and experienced operation is focused on turning out votes and highlighting the contrast” between Trump and Biden.

The DNC for months has argued that its and the Biden campaign’s growing on-the-ground operation could help swing an election expected to be close. Still, top Democrats are trying to move past questions from within their own party that have persisted about whether Biden is up to continuing to seek reelection in the weeks since his debate debacle and despite the race’s shifting dynamics after Trump was injured last weekend.

Biden and his team have furiously attempted to reassure jittery lawmakers and donors, as well as skeptical voters, that, at age 81, the Democratic president can still win in November and handle a second four-year term. Nearly 20 Democratic lawmakers have nonetheless publicly called on Biden to step aside.

The DNC said the investments will fund new field offices and help state parties get more accurate data and better coordinate party efforts for down-ballot races.

“Democrats are leaving nothing to chance and investing heavily on the ground to ensure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win this election,“ Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “This election was always going to be close, and regardless of beltway media narratives, the entire election is going to come down to operation and turnout in the battleground states.”

Arizona Democratic Party chair Yolanda Bejarano said state officials and the Biden campaign opened a 15th coordinated campaign office in Arizona over the weekend, adding that, “This election is going to be won at the doors, talking to people about the issues that they care about.”

“This is perfect timing from my vantage point,” Bejarano said of the DNC investment. “We need the resources to do the work, to hire organizers, to have town halls across the state, to get the message out through media buys.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon Prime Day is here, and experts are reminding consumers to be wary of scams.

Deceptions such as phony emails from people impersonating online retailers like Amazon are nothing new. But phishing attempts increase amid the heavy spending seen during significant sales events, whether it’s Black Friday or Prime Day, according to the Better Business Bureau.

“This is a huge moment on the retail calendar,” Josh Planos, vice president of communications and public relations at the Better Business Bureau, previously told The Associated Press. “And because of that, it represents an enormous opportunity for a scammer, con artist or even just an unethical business or organization to capitalize on the moment and separate folks from their hard-earned money.”

Prime Day, a two-day discount event for Amazon Prime members, kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Wednesday. In updated guidance published last week, the Better Business Bureau reminded consumers to watch out for lookalike websites, too-good-to-be-true social media ads, and unsolicited emails or calls during sales events this month.

Consumers might need to be more vigilant this year than ever before. In June, the Better Business Bureau published a report that said it received a record number of phishing reports in 2023. Reports are also trending up so far this year, the organization said.

Meanwhile, in a report released this month, the Israel-founded cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies said more than 1,230 new websites that associated themselves with Amazon popped up in June. The vast majority of them were malicious or appeared suspicious, according to Check Point.

Scott Knapp, director of worldwide buyer risk prevention at Amazon, identifies two areas that the company has seen hoaxes around come Prime Day in recent years: Prime membership and order confirmations.

Last year, for example, more than two-third of scams reported by Amazon customers claimed to be related to order or account issues, Knapp wrote in an emailed statement. People reported getting unsolicited calls or emails saying there was something wrong with their Prime membership and seeking bank account or other payment information to reinstate the accounts, Knapp explained.

Urging consumers to confirm an order they didn’t place is also a common tactic at this time of year, he added. Scammers might pick something expensive, like a smartphone, to get attention — and again ask for payment information or send a malicious link. They might also try to lure in consumers with promises of a giveaway, or by using language that creates a false sense of urgency.

Amazon is attempting “to ensure scammers are not using our brand to take advantage of people who trust us,” Knapp wrote, adding that customers can confirm their purchases and verify messages from the company on its app or website.

Additional scams are probably out there, but it’s hard to know what form they might take before this year’s Prime Day begins. Still, experts note that the same shopping scams tend to resurface year after year.

“Typically, the bones remain the same,” Planos said, pointing to fake delivery scams, email phishing and other repeated methods. “It’s always a ploy to separate consumers from (their) personal and payment information.”

But online hoaxes are also constantly evolving to become more sophisticated, Planos and others warn. That means images might look more legitimate, text messages may sound more convincing and fake websites that look very similar to real shopping destinations.

Amazon’s Knapp has said that with artificial intelligence “starting to leak in,” the scams targeting e-commerce shoppers follow the same approach but with a machine populating an email or text instead of a person.

According to data from the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing about $10 billion to fraud in 2023, a 14% jump from 2022. Online shopping scams were the second most-reported form of fraud, following impostor scams, the FTC said.

Both the FTC and Better Business Bureau provide consumers with tips to avoid scams year-round. Guidance includes blocking unwanted messages, not giving financial information to unsolicited callers and checking links before clicking — secure websites, for example, will have “HTTPS” in the URL, Planos notes, never “HTTP.”

Scammers will often pressure you to act immediately, experts say. It’s important to pause and trust your gut. Experts also urge consumers to report scams to regulators.

Beyond scams that impersonate companies or retailers, it’s also important to be cautious of counterfeit products and fake reviews on the sites of trusted retailers. Just because you’re shopping on Amazon, for example, doesn’t mean you’re buying from Amazon. The online shopping giant, like eBay, Walmart and others, has vast third-party marketplaces.

The quality and look of counterfeit products has significantly increased over recent years, Planos notes, making the activity difficult to police. A good rule of thumb is looking at the price tag — if the product is being sold for less than 75% of its year-round market rate, “that’s a pretty big red flag,” he says.

Sketchy sellers can show up on different platforms, including sites like Amazon, “all the time” Planos said, urging consumers to check out companies on the Better Business Bureau’s website. Like other scams, counterfeit products may increase around high spending periods.

Amid increasing pressure to tackle counterfeit products, Amazon has reported getting rid of millions of phony products in recent years. The company said it also blocked billions of bad listings from making it on to its site. In 2023, Amazon the company said more than 7 million counterfeit items were “identified, seized and appropriately disposed of.” The online retailer has also filed multiple lawsuits against fake review brokers.

Amazon notes customers can also report fake reviews and other scams on its website. If a shopper purchases a counterfeit item detected by the company, Amazon has said it will “proactively contact” the customer and provide a refund.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 16, 2024 11:25 A.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) State Police were dispatched to 419 Allegheny Avenue in West Aliquippa by Aliquippa Police to assume an attempted double homicide investigation on Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 3:32pm.

Upon arrival officers found through investigation that Christopher Verdoni, 29, had stabbed Louis Badamo, 52, in both legs. He was treated and released at Heritage Valley Sewickley. The other victim, George Wissner, 57, had been stabbed in his torso, he was transported to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh for a serious injury.

Verdoni was taken into custody by state police and is awaiting arraignment in the Beaver County Jail.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 16, 2024 10:46 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) Hopewell’s Township’s Annual Yard Crawl has been announced for 2024. Over 140 residents are participating in the event that takes place throughout the township on Saturday, July 27, 2024 from 8am to 2pm. A food truck rally is also being held at the Crestmont Shopping Center from 11am to 2pm, according to Nora Janicki, Community outreach Coordinator for the township.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 16, 2024 10:44 A.M.

(Center Township, Pa) Center Township Supervisors chairman Bill DiCioccio, Jr.  reported on  Tuesday morning that  the complex’s renovation  on Center Grange Road is almost complete. He added that the building may be ready for business to convene in 4 to 6 weeks. Municipal offices are temporarily located in the Betters Plaza on Brodhead Road.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 16, 2024 10:39 A.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) It was revealed Monday that the Aliquippa Quips Head Coach Mike Warfield will be taking a leave of absence.  In a letter to Quip Nation Monday afternoon, Coach Warfield said it’s time for a short recess. He reported that he signed a contract extension for 2024 season, and said he’ll be around during the football season.
It was confirmed that the coach is taking the leave for personal reasons. The board is to discuss the matter in executive session in a few days.