Surgeons removed a bullet lodged just an inch from the president’s heart.
FILE - In this March 30, 1981 file photo, Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy, Washington policeman, Thomas K. Delehanty, and White House press secretary, James Brady, lie wounded on a street outside a Washington hotel after shots were fired at President Reagan. 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.
What transpired over the next few hours became the stuff of presidential and political legend. The life of the 70-year-old president was saved by the quick actions of his lead Secret Service agent, as well as the skill of medical personnel at George Washington University Hospital. Reagan’s courage over those tense hours further cemented his relationship -- and political standing -- with the American public and changed the way he approached the job over the next eight years.
As the public learned in the hours after the Reagan assassination attempt, early reports can be wrong. Only much later did the public realize how close Reagan came to dying that day -- his life had hung in the balance of a split-second decision and an inch. The fifth shot hit the armored window of the limousine. Hinckley’s final bullet ricocheted off the side of the limousine, flattening into the shape of a dime and striking Reagan five inches below his left armpit. Parr dove in behind the president, and the door slammed shut. Parr ordered the limousine to head to the White House.
As laid out in my book, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, the shooting generated massive sympathy from the American public for Reagan, who spent 13 days in the hospital before returning to the White House. But it did something else -- it built a bond between the president and the public. They had seen a president who acted with grace and courage.
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