WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors say the man who shot President Ronald Reagan and three other people in 1981 won’t face new charges in the death last summer of Reagan’s former press secretary.
John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of Reagan and three others, including his then-press secretary James Brady. Hinckley has been committed to a psychiatric hospital for the past 32 years.
Brady suffered debilitating injuries in the shooting and died in August at age 73. The Virginia medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide. But new criminal charges against Hinckley were considered unlikely.
U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen announced Friday that Hinckley won’t be charged, in part because prosecutors are barred from arguing now that Hinckley was sane at the time of the shootings.