Gunfire Has Eerie Echoes of Reagan’s Shooting Outside the Same Washington Hotel

45 years later, history's echoes heard in gunfire at Washington Hilton

When an armed attacker invaded the hotel last Saturday and got off a shotgun blast as President Donald Trump and his top leadership were attending the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner, Tim McCarthy harkened back 45 years to the day he was on President Ronald Reagan’s Secret Service detail at that same hotel. On that fateful 1981 day as Reagan was being escorted out the back entrance, he was wounded by assassin John Hinckley Jr. McC…

Gunfire has eerie echoes of Reagan’s shooting outside the same Washington hotel

When President Ronald Reagan left the Washington Hilton Hotel and headed for his waiting limousine on a gray March afternoon, he was exposed for mere seconds. That was all it took for a would-be assassin to take aim and fire.

Gunfire has eerie echoes of Reagan's shooting outside the same Washington hotel

When President Ronald Reagan left the Washington Hilton Hotel and headed for his waiting limousine on a gray March afternoon, he was exposed for mere seconds. That was all it took for a would-be assassin to take aim and fire.

45 Years Ago, Another Shooting at the Washington Hilton

I’ve never been to the Washington Hilton Hotel, but it inhabits a dark place in my memory. 45 years ago, on a gray drizzly Spring day, my father gave a speech in the ballroom, walked outside, and was shot by John Hinckley, who had been patiently waiting and who shot 3 people out of the way in order to assassinate the President of the United States. Something haunting and sickening moved in on me Saturday evening when the news broke that a shoote…