REAGAN SHOOTER READY TO LEAVE HOSPITAL: JUDGE

The man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital and live full-time in Virginia, a judge has ruled.

John Hinckley Jr. is ready to live in the community, Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Wednesday, granting him full-time convalescent leave that shall begin no sooner than Aug. 5. The ruling comes more than 35 years after the March 30, 1981, shooting outside a Washington hotel in which Reagan and three others were injured.

Doctors have said for many years that the now-61year-old Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, is no longer plagued by the mental illness that drove him to shoot Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley’s release from Washington’s St. Elizabeths hospital has been more than a decade in the making. In late 2003, the judge allowed Hinckley to begin leaving the hospital for day visits with his parents in the Washington area and in 2006 he began visiting his parents’ home in Williamsburg, Va., for three-night stretches.