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Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

The attempted assassination of United States President Ronald Reagan occurred on March 30, 1981, 69 days into his presidency. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. The most seriously wounded victim, James Brady, died decades later of complications related to his injuries. Hinckley's motivation for the attack was to impress actress Jodie Foster, over whom he had developed an obsession after seeing her in the film Taxi Driver.

Reagan was shot in the chest, below the left underarm. He suffered a punctured lung and heavy internal bleeding, but prompt medical attention allowed him to recover quickly. No formal invocation of presidential succession took place, although Secretary of State Alexander Haig controversially stated that he was "in control here" while Vice President George H. W. Bush returned to Washington.

There were no fatalities in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was left paralyzed from a gunshot wound, died in 2014 of causes a Virginia medical examiner found were directly related to the 1981 shooting. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempting to assassinate the President and remains confined to a psychiatric facility. In January 2015, federal prosecutors announced that they would not charge Hinckley with Brady's death, despite the medical examiner's classification of his death as a homicide ...