Meanwhile, Parr closely inspected the President for any signs of injury, but found no visible wounds.
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Mr. Parr had been fascinated by the Secret Service from boyhood. Meanwhile, Reagan lay slumped in the vehicle, with his handkerchief placed firmly against his lips. He ordered the auto instead to go to the emergency room at George Washington University Hospital, where Reagan, who had been shot, underwent surgery.
Recounting the incident later, Parr said he thought he had injured one of Reagan’s ribs when he fell on top of the president in the race to get him into the limousine, only learning at the hospital that the president had been shot.
Mr Parr was hailed a hero when he protected the president from gunfire outside the Washington Hilton hotel on March 30, 1981.
One of the doctors who treated Reagan said if the vehicle had gone to the White House, he would have died.
Parr served as a special agent in the Secret Service from 1962 to 1985. Reagan didn’t know that a flattened Devastator slug had bounced off a rib and lodged an inch from his heart.
Parr’s quick thinking on that dramatic day in 1981 “not only saved the life of president Reagan, but Jerry’s actions preserved the institution of the office of the presidency”, Clancy added. “There isn’t a mistrust within my mind”. Investigations later revealed that the bullet that caused Reagan to bleed internally had ricocheted off the auto and hit him below the left armpit. “Jerry Parr is a hero”. After he retired, he became a minister, according to a website for his official book, CNN reported. Besides Reagan, he also took charge of handling President Jimmy Carter. The movie starred none other than President Reagan himself.
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To honor his actions that day, the U.S. Secret Service honored Parr with the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive and the Director’s Award for Valor. His parents later moved to Miami, where Parr spent most of his time with his unemployed father at bars and hunting small game for meals, according to his biography posted on his website.
