Would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley slams Washington Hilton security after shooting

CALGARY — The man who shot former US President Ronald Reagan in 1981 had said the Washington Hilton Hotel should stop holding major events because it’s not “secure.”Speaking to TMZ about security at the hotel on the Sunday in the aftermath of the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD) shooting at the hotel, John Hinckley Jr. said he learned about the incident when a news notification came up on his phone and he turned on the television to watch the coverage, adding that it was “spooky” that the shooting “took place at the same hotel where mine did.”Hinckley shot Reagan and three other people on March 30, 1981, during a failed assassination attempt on the president just months after his first inauguration.The would-be assassin was arrested and later found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental hospital for over 34 years before being freed.At the time of the shooting, Hinckley thought his attack would impress Hollywood actress Jodie Foster — with whom Hinckley had developed an obsession — after seeing her in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver..Fox News reporter Bill Melugin hammered the security measures at the WHCD event, saying on X that he didn’t have to show any ID or go through a metal detector.The lack of security was something that alleged shooter Cole Allen also mentioned in the manifesto he published before carrying out the attack.“What the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, I’m gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone,” Allen wrote.“I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing. No damn security. Not in transport. Not in the hotel. Not in the event.”Hinckley has since said the Hilton should stop holding events there "because bad things keep happening" and "it's just not a secure place to hold big events."He cited how, when he carried out his attack in 1981, the security was “lax,” stating he was able to sneak into a crowd of reporters waiting outside the hotel after Reagan finished delivering his speech.Hinckley also added that Secret Service members didn’t check whether he was a reporter during their sweeps and said that if they had, he would have “bolted” since he had no press credentials and his plot would have been exposed..President Donald Trump has also discussed the security issues at the event, saying that what happened is an example of why “every President for the last 150 years has been demanding that a large, safe, and secure ballroom be built on the grounds of the White House.”“This event would never have happened with the militarily top-secret ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“It cannot be built fast enough.”

Would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley slams Washington Hilton security after shooting

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