JUDGE: REAGAN SHOOTER CAN LEAVE HOSPITAL, LIVE IN VIRGINIA
Suburban police chief wounded by John Hinckley: ‘They had better be right about what they’re doing’
WASHINGTON — More than 35 years after he tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, John Hinckley Jr. will be allowed to leave a Washington psychiatric hospital and live full time with his mother in Virginia, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Paul Friedman wrote in a 14-page ruling and accompanying 103-page opinion that Hinckley — who currently spends more than half his days at his mother’s home — is ready to live full time in the community. Friedman granted Hinckley leave from the hospital starting no sooner than Aug. 5.
Doctors have said for many years that Hinckley, 61, 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. The March 30, 1981, shooting outside a Washington hotel endangered Reagan’s life, but he recovered after undergoing emergency surgery. He died in 2004 at 93.
Three others were wounded, including Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady. He suffered debilitating injuries and died in 2014. Brady’s death was later ruled a homicide, but prosecutors said they would not charge Hinckley with murder, in part because they would be barred from arguing he was sane at the time of the shooting. Also wounded were Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, now the police chief in Orland Park; and Thomas Delahanty, a Washington, D.C., police officer.
Hinckley was a “profoundly troubled 25-year-old young man” when he shot Reagan, but his mental illnesses — major depression and psychotic disorder — have been in remission for more than 27 years, Friedman wrote.
“Mr. Hinckley, by all accounts, has shown no signs of psychotic symptoms, delusional thinking, or any violent tendencies,” the judge wrote in his opinion. “The court finds that Mr. Hinckley has received the maximum benefits possible in the inpatient setting [and] that inpatient treatment is no longer clinically warranted or beneficial.”
McCarthy, who took a bullet to the chest after stepping into the line of fire to protect the president, was somewhat incredulous Wednesday about the judge’s decision.
“This is a man who murdered one person, Jim Brady, shot the president of the United States and almost killed him and shot two oth- ers. I hope they know what they’re doing when they release a person like this. Psychiatry is not an exact science,” McCarthy said.
“Can they say with absolute certainty that this man is 100 percent cured and poses no threat? If they could, I probably wouldn’t feel too bad about it,” McCarthy said. “But no one has ever communicated that to me. They had better be right about what they’re doing.”
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.
In 2006, Hinckley began visiting his parents’ home in Williamsburg, Virginia, for three-night stretches. That time has increased over the years so that for the past two-plus years he has been allowed to spend 17 days a month at the house overlooking a golf course in a gated community.
Largely remembered for his boyish mugshot, Hinckley is now a doughy man with graying hair who wears hats or visors when he drives around Williamsburg in a Toyota Avalon, going to movies and fastfood restaurants. He also plays guitar, paints and cares for feral cats.
While outside the hospital, Hinckley has had to comply with a series of restrictions, and some of those will continue now that he will be living full time in the com- munity. He must attend individual and group therapy sessions and is barred from talking to the media. He can drive, but there are restrictions on how far he can travel. The Secret Service also periodically follows him.
Hinckley must return to Washington once a month for doctors to check on his mental state and his compliance with the conditions of his leave, the judge ruled. Reaction to his release was mixed. McCarthy questioned why neither he, nor any of the other victims or the victims’ families were ever called to ask their opinion of Hinckley’s release.
“I would have appreciated the courtesy of a call. But more importantly, was Mrs. Brady called? Was anyone from the Reagan family or the Delahanty family called? It should have been and could have been done, but it wasn’t,” McCarthy said.
Contributing: Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times; Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield and Jessica Gresko in Washington and Alanna Durkin Richer in Richmond, Virginia.