WASHINGTON — The would-be assassin fired six shots in 1.7 seconds, nearly killing a president and changing the course of a presidency.
It happened on a bleak afternoon in March 1981. President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton hotel after giving a speech to a labor group when John W. Hinckley Jr. opened fire with his .22-caliber revolver.
As the gunshots rang out, Secret Service agents rushed over and one of them pushed the president into the waiting limousine, but not before one of the bullets hit Reagan in the side.
What happened in the next few hours became the stuff of presidential and political legend. The 70-year-old president’s life was saved by the quick actions of his Secret Service chief, and the skill of the medical staff at George Washington University Hospital. Reagan’s courage in those tense hours further cemented his relationship—and political standing—with the American public and changed the way he approached the job for the next eight years.
At first glance, there are parallels between 1981 and what happened saturday in butler pennsylvaniawhen a gunman fired shots at former President Donald Trump are notable. A gunman fired multiple shots as Trump was addressing a rally, hitting Trump in his right ear. Trump ducked behind a lectern as officers piled on top of him as a human shield. In what is sure to be an iconic moment, A bloodied Trump raised his fist defiantly toward the crowd as officers removed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from the stage.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong. I heard a whooshing sound, shots and immediately felt the bullet rip through my skin,” he said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign said he was doing “fine” after being examined at a local medical facility. Authorities are trying to figure out what happened in Butler.
As the public learned in the hours after the Reagan assassination attempt, early reports could be wrong. Only much later did the public realize how close Reagan had come to death that day — his life hanging in the balance of a split-second, split-inch decision.
Reagan was only 70 days into his first term when he left the Washington Hilton after a speech to a labor union on March 30 and approached his waiting limousine at 2:27 p.m. Hinckley couldn’t believe his luck. Hinckley, a troubled 25-year-old, had hoped to assassinate the president to impress actress Jodie Foster. Somehow, he found himself standing behind a rope in a crowd of spectators and journalists—all unprotected by the Secret Service—just 15 feet from the president.
He pulled out his revolver and opened fire.
His first bullet struck White House spokesman James Brady in the head, and his second bullet hit Washington, D.C., police officer Thomas Delahanty in the back.
At the sound of shots, Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr grabbed Reagan and pushed him toward the open door of the armored limousine. Hinckley’s third bullet flew high. The fourth hit Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy in the chest as he stood between the president and the gunman.
The fifth shot hit the armored window of the limousine. Hinckley’s last bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine, flattened into the shape of a dime, and struck Reagan two inches below his left armpit. Parr ducked behind the president and the door slammed shut. Parr ordered the limousine to head toward the White House.
Parr did not know that Reagan had been shot. But when the president complained of chest pains and Parr saw frothy blood on his lips, the officer ordered the limousine to George Washington University Hospital. There, Reagan insisted on walking into the hospital under his own power, but collapsed in the hallway like a dead man.
Doctors and nurses found his wounds. They could not stop Reagan’s bleeding, however, forcing surgeons to operate to stem it. Reagan lost more than half his blood volume that day before the bleeding was controlled. Surgeons removed the bullet, which was just an inch from the president’s heart.
As explained in my book, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, The shooting generated massive sympathy among the American public for Reagan, who spent 13 days in the hospital before returning to the White House. But it did something else as well — it built a bond between the president and the public. They had seen a president act with grace and courage. They would hear him joke with his doctors and nurses as they fought to save his life and tried to ease the anguish of his loved ones.
As he lay on a gurney in the trauma room, a chest tube draining blood from his side, Reagan tried to calm his wife, Nancy, with a joke.
“Honey, I forgot to duck,” he told her, a statement boxer Jack Dempsey made to his own wife after losing the 1926 heavyweight championship.
He joked with advisers as he was wheeled into the operating room. And just before he was put under anesthesia, he told his surgeons, “I hope you’re all Republicans.”
Dr. Joseph Giordano, a liberal Democrat, responded: “Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.”
The White House wasted little time in making sure those rules were passed on to the press. As David Broder, a political reporter for the Washington Post, would write two days later: “What happened to Reagan on Monday is the stuff of which legends are made.”
Three decades later, Broder maintained that assessment. “From that moment on, he was politically untouchable,” Broder said in an interview. “He became a mythical figure.”