Pennsylvania
Two men shot during Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump say Secret Service failed them
BUTLER, Pa. — Two men who were shot during the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump this summer 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, told NBC News in an exclusive interview Monday they were excited to be sitting in the bleachers behind the Republican nominee 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 shielding his family. Trump was wounded in the ear.
The interview with the two Pennsylvania men who were critically injured marked their first public statements since 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire in July from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.
“It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer right in the chest,” said Dutch, who served in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm in his time with the Marines from 1986 to 1992. He said he could see chunks of the bleacher and metal “flying all around” until the shooting stopped.
Dutch said Monday he was still “angry that the whole situation even happened. It should have never happened.” NBC News reported the two men’s attorneys said they were looking into possible litigation over what they view as negligence by the Secret Service.
“It wouldn’t have happened, had it been secure,” Copenhaver said.
Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service at the time, called the attempt on Trump’s life at the Pennsylvania rally the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.” She stepped down this summer after lawmakers called for her to resign.
Trump returned earlier this month to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, urging a large crowd to deliver an Election Day victory that he tied to his survival of the shooting.
Pennsylvania
Man cited after abandoning car in frozen pond at Pennsylvania country club: Police
A man has been cited after police said he drove a vehicle into a frozen pond at a country club in Pennsylvania, left the scene, then spent the night in a hotel.
According to the East Lampeter Township Police Department, on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, around 10:38 a.m., officers were called to the Lancaster Country Club after receiving reports about a vehicle in a pond.
Police said that, through an investigation, it was learned that Sung Chun, a 50-year-old man from Hoboken, New Jersey, had driven onto the property the day before around 8:30 p.m., crossed portions of the golf course, and ultimately ended up in a pond.
Chun then exited the vehicle and walked away without reporting the incident and spent the night at a nearby hotel, according to police.
Credit: East Lampeter Township Police Department
Credit: East Lampeter Township Police Department

Credit: East Lampeter Township Police Department
Police said Chun returned to the location while police were on scene investigating the incident and was ultimately cited with “Trespass by Motor Vehicle.”
Pennsylvania
State College, Pennsylvania: 2026 USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards
Pennsylvania
What the war with Iran could mean for gas prices in western Pennsylvania
The war with Iran could start impacting your wallet as soon as today.
Jim Garrity from AAA East Central says oil prices are up.
“They’re hovering around $72. They were pretty consistently around $65, $66 for a while,” he said.
Nationally, AAA said the average for a gallon of regular sits at about $3, up approximately six cents from last week.
In Pennsylvania, it’s around $3.12 a gallon, and in the Pittsburgh region, it’s around $3.24 a gallon. That’s actually down about four cents from last week.
Garrity added that gas prices this time of year would already be increasing, usually because of higher demand for the warmer months and the production of the summer blend of gas used for those months.
The impacts of what’s happening in Iran may not be immediate, which could be part of why our region and the state overall have not seen a spike yet, he said.
“It could be a couple of days later. It could be up to a week later,” Garrity said.
A lot of people are watching what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. Iran borders it to the north, and 20% of the world’s oil goes through it.
Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and China gets a lot of that oil.
“If there is an impact there, you could see oil start to come in from other parts of the world, which has a downstream effect on [the United States],” Garrity said.
One way you can save on gas if prices increase in our area is by slowing down.
“When you drive faster every five miles, over 50 miles an hour, your fuel efficiency is going down,” Garrity said. “You’re making the car work harder, making the gasoline consumption less effective.”
Garrity added that in 2022, when our area and many others saw some of the highest gas prices ever recorded, people changed their driving habits.
“We saw people make seemingly permanent changes to their driving behaviors, driving less in general, consolidating trips,” he said.
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