Mr Reagan and three others were injured in the shooting outside a hotel in Washington in March 1981.
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“Mr Hinckley recognizes that what he did was horrific”. Hinckley will be confined to a 50-mile radius, and authorities will monitor his phone, auto and online activity.
Hinckley, 61, “is permitted to reside full-time in Williamsburg, Virginia, on convalescent leave, which shall begin no sooner than August 5, 2016”, Friedman said in a 14-page order. Brady’s death in 2014 at the age of 73 was ruled as homicide. Hinckley was 25 at the time of the shooting; he is now 61. Since 2006, the order said, Hinckley has completed over 80 unsupervised visits with his family in Williamsburg without incident.
After spending 34 years in a psychiatric hospital after trying to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley Jr.is going to be set free.
Reactions to the news of the would-be assassin’s release have been mixed.
Hinckley will not be able to publicly display, physically or on the internet, any memorabilia, writings, paintings, photographs, artwork, or music created by him without approval from his doctors.
And now, Hinckley Jr., who’s spent the last 35 years in a psychiatric hospital, is being granted his freedom.
He must carry a Global Positioning System enabled phone and can only drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg in a pre-approved vehicle. A Secret Service officer was also shot during the attempt. He reportedly is seeking full time employment. Hinckley has been out shopping and to movies before, but the Secret Service keeps tabs on him.
But if he relapses, he would have to return to the mental hospital. He has also been speaking at local art museums and concerts.
He was quoted in a court document as saying “I don’t like flipping round the TV, I want to do things”, the AP reported. He says he wants to “fit in” and be a “good citizen”. Hinckley has been allowed supervised visits with family members since the 1990s.
He also shot James Brady, then-White House Press Secretary, hitting him in the head. His mother lives in a gated golf course community.
Patti Davis says in a lengthy statement on her website that she will “forever be haunted” by the day her father nearly died in 1981.
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Hinckley could be permitted to move in with his mother as soon as next week. “I so diminished his life”, he said, transcripts show. “One never knows what a mentally ill person will do”. William Miller, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Washington, said the office is reviewing the ruling and has no comment.
