President Reagan Was Nearly Assassinated in DC 40 Years Ago Tuesday
“Shots fired!” an officer can still be heard saying over a police radio on March 30, 1981
It's been four decades since the attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life. News4's Pat Collins looks back on March 30, 1981: the day that shook the country.
It was a day the world stood still.
President Ronald Reagan was shot and nearly killed as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981 — 40 years ago as of Tuesday.
“Shots fired!” an officer can still be heard saying over a police radio that day. “Rawhide is ok,” the officer says, using the president’s Secret Service code name.
“We want to go to the emergency room of George Washington,” another officer can be heard saying. Here are 10 minutes of police radio transmissions.
The president suffered a broken rib and punctured lung. He spent 11 days in the hospital and could have been killed, said Del Quentin Wilber. He wrote the book “Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan.”
“People don’t understand how dramatic the day really was. They don’t understand that the president’s life hung in the balance of an inch — a split-second decision. And a split-second itself. The president’s life, if not for the heroic action of a Secret Service agent on the scene, and the doctors and nurses at G.W. hospital — he would’ve died,” Wilber said.
Corbis via Getty Images
President Ronald Reagan smiles and waves as he leaves the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981. Among those pictured are, from second left, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, White House press secretary James Brady, Reagan, White House Deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, an unidentified policeman, policeman Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy (right). Reagan, Brady, Delahanty, and McCarthy were all shot in the attempt.
Ron Edmonds/AP
President Ronald Reagan is shoved into the presidential state car by secret service agents after a 25-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate him outside a Washington, D.C., hotel, March 30, 1981.
Richard Drew/AP
Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy takes bullets intended for President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981, after the president left the Washington Hilton. Behind the limousine door, lead agent Jerry Parr shoves the stricken president into the car.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Police officers and Secret Service agents dive to protect President Ronald Reagan amid a panicked crowd during an assassination attempt by a 25-year-old gunamn outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981.
Ron Edmonds/AP
An unidentified secret agent yells orders with his weapon drawn after a 25-year-old gunman fired at President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981, outside a Washington, D.C., hotel.
Ron Edmonds/AP
White House press secretary James Brady lies on the sidewalk outside a Washington hotel after he was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981.
Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images
Armed Secret Service agents surround D.C. policeman Thomas K Delahanty and White House press secretary James Brady outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981. Both were shot during an attempt, by John Hinkley Jr, to assassinate President Ronald Reagan; also injured were Reagan and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.
Mike Evens/AFP via Getty Images
Police and Secret Service agents react during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Reagan was hit by one of six shots fired by John Hinckley, who also seriously injured press secretary James Brady. Reagan was hit in the chest and was hospitalized for 12 days.
Ron Edmonds/AP
First responders load Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy into an ambulance after he was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel on March 30, 1981.
AP
Vice President George Bush, followed by White House chief of staff Edwin Meese III, arrives for an appearance before reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981. The vice president interrupted a trip to Texas and returned to Washington after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Charles Tasnadi/AP
Two people hang a sign on a building near the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, March 31, 1981, where President Ronald Reagan is being treated for gunshot wounds he received on Monday in Washington.
Wolfgang Rattay/AP
A woman reads a Munich newspaper carrying the headline “Reagan in danger after attempt on his life!” in West Germany, March 31, 1981. The attempted assassination of the president of the United States was the number one story in Munich’s media.
White House via AP
President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan seen for the first time in photos on April 3, 1981, at the George Washington University Hospital after a 25-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate the president.
Jeff Taylor/AP
Five members of the jury, which found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Criminal Law subcommittee on Capitol Hill, June 24, 1982. The panel held a hearing to study the insanity defense. From left: Glynis Lassiter, Lawrence Coffey, Woodrow Johnson, Maryland Copelin, and Nathalia Brown.
Ira Schwartz/AP
John Hinckley, Jr. peers from a car window after a court appearance in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 4, 1984. A federal judge refused to give Hinckley uncensored access to telephone and reporters, and also refused Hinckley’s request that he be allowed to walk around his hospital grounds for an hour a day.
Doug Mills/AP
With an emotional James Brady in the foreground, President Bill Clinton speaks in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 30, 1993, prior to Clinton signing the Brady bill. The bill, named after Brady, the former White House Press Secretary who was shot and injured during the 1981 assassinated attempt on Ronald Reagan, requires a five-day waiting period and background check on handgun buyers.
Marcy Nighswander/AP
President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Bill in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 30, 1993. Looking on is former press secretary James Brady, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno.
John Hinckley Jr. was charged in the case. He was a failed songwriter who was said to want to kill Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent a number of years in treatment at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast D.C. He was released in 2016.
Today, the Secret Service displays a replica of the gun Hinckley used. Bulletproof glass from Reagan’s limo also is on display. A shot hit the glass and ricocheted into the president’s chest.
Evan Carr
Evan Carr
Evan Carr
At the Hilton, a plaque commemorates what happened there.
A D.C. police officer and a Secret Service agent were wounded in the shooting, along with Jim Brady, Reagan’s press spokesman. Brady was struck in the head, suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled. He died in 2014. His death was ruled a homicide but no murder charges were brought against Hinckley.
