POCATELLO — A local man who made international headlines when he serendipitously had a video camera running as he shot a machete-wielding assailant in self-defense has died.

A friend of James Cvengros, 34, of Pocatello, who died unexpectedly July 26, has launched a GoFundMe page — https://www.gofundme.com/JamesCvengros? — to help cover his funeral costs.

His girlfriend of nearly a decade, Kaila Gearhart, who shared a residence with him, said she found him dead when she arrived home. The online fundraiser was more than $1,220 toward a $5,000 goal as of early Saturday.

“I work part time. James worked something in between part- and full time. His mom came here from Montana and had to leave her job to be here for all of this and to be here for her other son,” Gearhart said. “The costs are way more than we can pull together.”

A story of self-defense from 2014 involving Cvengros was covered internationally and went viral on social media. Gearhart explained a resident who lived in their former Pocatello apartment complex, Twain Thomas, was angry with other tenants for making loud noises.

“He got really aggressive towards us. He called police on us several times when we were playing music, and even when we weren’t playing music,” Gearhart said.

She said Thomas broke down the door to their apartment one evening when Cvengros had fallen asleep while listening to music and hit him repeatedly. Neighbors called police, and Gearhart, who had been at work, drove her boyfriend to the hospital.

In response to the incident, they both used their tax returns to buy handguns. They also started training in marksmanship and gun safety.

Several months passed, and early one morning, they were awoken by the sound of Thomas breaking glass and destroying things in his own apartment. Gearhart said she and Cvengros turned on the video function of their digital camera, hoping to capture the audio of the early morning disturbance to justify a noise complaint against Thomas.

Then they heard him breaking into the apartment of upstairs neighbors, wielding a machete and yelling about their dog. Gearhart said the neighbors grabbed swords and staffs displayed on their walls to fend him off.

He then broke down the door to force entry into their apartment, she said.

“He came running at us. James said, ‘Stop! I don’t want to shoot you!’” Gearhart said. “James shot one time. He was still coming, and he shot two more times.”

The camera, still running on the couch, caught part of the exchange on video, and was knocked off as Thomas passed, capturing only audio from that point. The Idaho State Journal posted the video on YouTube and it received more than 3.6 million views.

“You can hear my yelling, shots and Thomas wheezing,” she said. “He said, ‘You killed me. You killed me.’ James said, ‘You were going to kill me.’ He said, ‘Yes I was.’”

Gearhart said the video made the police investigation an open-and-shut case. Furthermore, they were featured on several programs, including an “Investigation Discovery” episode titled “Fear Thy Neighbor.” A Japanese media outlet also featured them, and a man used the video as an example of the proper way to respond to an attacker in a concealed carry course.

Gearhart said her late boyfriend was a proponent of Second Amendment rights, a lover of video games and extremely sensitive to the needs of others.

“He had a heart of gold,” Gearhart said. “He always wanted to be there for me and his mom and his brother.”