John Hinckley Jr calls Trump shooting at same hotel he shot Reagan ‘spooky’

The man who shot Ronald Reagan at the Washington Hilton in 1981 has said it was “spooky” for him to learn of Saturday’s shooting at the hotel during a prestigious media gala attended by Donald Trump and senior members of the president’s administration. In an interview with TMZ published on Monday, John Hinckley Jr also observed that “bad things keep happening” at the hotel and maintained it was “just not a secure place to hold big events”. Hinckley’s voice was perhaps an unconventional addition to the growing chorus posing questions about the level of security on Saturday at the Washington Hilton, which implemented measures that were more rigorous than usual and kept the president safe. But those steps did not prevent the White House press dinner from being canceled after an armed guest shot at a Secret Service agent at an interior checkpoint, striking the agent’s ballistic vest. Those remarks came 44 years after Hinckley – while suffering from acute psychosis and hoping to gain the attention of actor Jodie Foster – shot Reagan with a revolver. The shooting also wounded the then president’s secretary, James Brady; a police officer; and a Secret Service agent. Hinckley was found not guilty of the shooting by reason of insanity in 1982 and ordered to live at a psychiatric hospital. He was granted a full release from all mental health treatment and legal supervision restrictions in 2022. …