The Hotel Where Reagan Was Shot in 1981 Becomes a Crime Scene Again

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The Hotel Where Reagan Was Shot in 1981 Becomes a Crime Scene Again

The Washington Hilton was the site of an assassination attempt against the 40th president.

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Secret Service agents shoved President Ronald Reagan into his limousine after he was shot in Washington on March 30, 1981.

Credit...

Ron Edmonds/Associated Press

By

Tim Balk

April 26, 2026,

3:36 p.m. ET

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The Washington Hilton Hotel, where gunfire broke out Saturday night during a White House correspondents’ dinner attended by President Trump, was also the site of an attempted assassination that left President Ronald Reagan seriously wounded in 1981.

Mr. Trump had been on the dais in the ballroom where the dinner was being held when a commotion broke out, and he was quickly escorted from the room unharmed. Forty-five years ago, Mr. Reagan

was shot on the sidewalk outside the hotel

as he walked toward his limousine after a labor meeting inside.

The six-decade-old, M-shaped hotel has long hosted the White House correspondents’ dinner and other high-profile annual gatherings, including the First Lady’s Luncheon and the National Prayer Breakfast. It is in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, little more than a mile from the White House.

In 1981, Mr. Reagan was shot in the rib while leaving the hotel. The .22-caliber bullet pierced his lung, and he was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he underwent two hours of surgery.

Image

The scene during the attempted assassination of Mr. Reagan.

Credit...

Ron Edmonds/Associated Press

He was later reported to have told the first lady, Nancy Reagan: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” The shooter, John W. Hinckley Jr., also struck James Brady, the White House press secretary, who was partially paralyzed, as well as a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer. In 2000, President Bill Clinton

named the White House briefing room

after Mr. Brady.

At the time, the shooting was the first assassination attempt against a president in a half decade. (The previous one was an

attempted shooting

of President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.)

Mr. Reagan, then in the first year of his first term, delivered an address to Congress a month later, and his approval rating rose.

Mr. Hinckley, who was acquitted in the

shooting by reason of insanity,

was

released from various court-ordered restrictions

in 2022 after officials determined he did not pose a danger to himself or others.

On Saturday night, the F.B.I. said a suspect was in custody after what the Secret Service called “a shooting incident” near a security screening area.

The White House correspondents’ dinner

service continued

. But by 9:45 p.m., Mr. Trump

was on his way

back to the White House in the presidential limousine.

By 10:34 p.m., he was briefing reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

“It’s a dangerous profession,” Mr. Trump said.

Tyler Pager

contributed reporting.

See more on:

Ronald Reagan

,

Donald Trump

,

U.S. Politics

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