President Reagan Is Shot
On this day in1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot while
leaving the Washington Union Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Reagan’s assailant, later identified as 25-year-old John
Hinckley Jr., approached the president as he left the hotel after speaking to a
union convention, and fired five to six shots from a .22 caliber gun in his
direction. The president later recalled in his autobiography that the shots
sounded like firecrackers. He turned to the agent next to him and said what the
hell is that? One bullet hit Reagan in the chest. Immediately the Secret
Service pulled Reagan into a waiting limousine and sped to George Washington
University Hospital, where he walked into the emergency room on his own. White
House Press Secretary James Brady, a policeman and a Secret Service agent were
also injured in the shooting. Each man survived, but Brady sustained severe
head injuries that caused permanent disability.
First lady Nancy Reagan arrived at the hospital soon after the
shooting and sat by the president’s side as he recovered. Reagan was released
from the hospital less than two weeks later and quickly returned to his
presidential duties.
Reagan recalled the day of the assassination attempt in great
detail in his autobiography. He remembered lying on a gurney in the emergency
room while medical personnel, much to his disappointment, cut away his brand
new pin-striped suit. As he started to lose consciousness, he felt a woman’s
hand in his. He did not know if it was Nancy or a nurse and in typical Reagan
fashion—always ready with a joke—he asked, Who is holding my hand? Does Nancy
know about us?
In the years after the shooting, Reagan also recalled an ominous
and prophetic visit he had made before the attempt on his life to the same
theater in which Abraham Lincoln had been shot. While at the theater Reagan had
mused that although presidential security had greatly improved since Lincoln’s
time, it was still possible for someone who had enough determination to get
close enough to a president to shoot him.
The assailant Hinckley, who acted alone, confessed a bizarre
reason for the shooting–Hinckley was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster and
claimed he shot the president in order to impress her. Hinckley was arrested,
judged not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental hospital, where
he remains today.