John Hinckley, who shot Reagan in 1981, on track for release from restrictions: judge

John Hinckley Jr., who shot then-President Ronald Reagan in a failed 1981 assassination attempt, can be freed in June from remaining legal restrictions he’s lived with since he left a psychiatric hospital five years ago, a judge said Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman signaled his intention to grant the release — pending continued adherence to the rules — during a 90-minute court hearing.

John Hinckley Jr. arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 18, 2003. (Evan Vucci/)

Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity on 13 charges in the Reagan shooting, was released in 2016 from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was allowed to move into his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Va.

The specific terms of Hinckley’s full release weren’t made clear by the court on Monday. Barry Levine, a lawyer representing Hinckley, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily News.

Barry Levine, attorney for John Hinckley Jr., speaks to reporters at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, after a federal judge said that Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan four decades ago, can be freed from all his remaining restrictions next year if he continues to follow those rules and remains mentally stable. (Patrick Semansky/)

But he said his 66-year-old client poses “no evidence of danger,” and hailed the news as “momentous,” NPR reported.

The Justice Department, which once opposed Hinckley’s pushes for increased freedom, offered its blessing.

“At this point, the ball is in Mr. Hinckley’s hands,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kacie Weston said, according to The Washington Post. “The government agrees if he continues to do what he is doing between now and June 2022, he would be granted his unconditional release.”

Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy, foreground, Washington policeman Thomas K. Delehanty, center, and presidential press secretary James Brady, background, lie wounded on a street outside a Washington hotel after shots were fired at U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. (RON EDMONDS/)

Hinckley unleashed six bullets outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981. Four men were struck, including James Brady, the then-White House press secretary.

Brady suffered permanent brain damage. He died in 2014.

Reagan was struck in the chest — a bullet hit his rib — but shrugged off the shooting. When he saw First Lady Nancy Reagan at the hospital, he reportedly told her: “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

Friedman suggested that Hinckley’s continued restrictions would not be in place if he shot someone else.

“If he hadn’t tried to kill the President, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” the judge said, according to the Associated Press. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews and all of the experience with Mr. Hinckley.”

With News Wire Services