The would-be assassin of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan was freed Saturday from a Washington D.C. psychiatric hospital.
John Hinckley, 61, was committed to long-term psychiatric hospitalization 35 years ago after attempting to murder the president. He shot and critically injured President Reagan but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He also seriously wounded Press Secretary James Brady, who was left paralyzed for the rest of his life, 33 years later.
Two other men at the scene were also wounded: Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy – who is now a police chief in Illinois – and DC Police Officer Thomas Delahanty, who, according to Fox News, retired after the attack on disability.
Hinckley fired six shots in the attack, which took place outside a Washington D.C. hotel on March 30, 1981.
He was released from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in accordance with a decision by a federal judge in July who said he no longer poses a danger to himself or the public. The judge ruled that Hinckley has “no signs of psychotic symptoms, delusional thinking or any violent tendencies.”
He was brought by private car to live with his elderly mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.