John Hinckley Jr, Reagan's would-be assassin, released after 35 years

John Hinckley Jr, the man who tried to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan, has been released from a psychiatric hospital after 35 years, CNN reported.

Reagan and three others were injured in the shooting outside a hotel in Washington in March 1981.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity but was sent for treatment to a Washington hospital.

In July, a judge ruled that Mr Hinckley, now 61, was not a danger to himself or the public.

Hinckley had already been spending 17 days a month at his mother's home in Virginia under strict conditions.

The shooting, just weeks into Ronald Reagan's presidency, shocked the world.

Reagan was shot in the lung, but recovered.

His press secretary James Brady was shot in the head, suffered brain damage and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

US District Judge Paul Friedman's judgement points to medical assessments which showed that Mr Hinckley had had "no symptoms of active mental illness" since 1983.

He had shot the president in an apparent bid to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had an obsession and whom he had subjected to what would now be termed stalking.

Source: MENA