WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981 has apologized for his actions in a televised interview.
John Hinckley Jr. told CBS Mornings in his first TV interview since his release from court supervision that he feels remorse for all the lives he affected.
"I have true remorse for what I did," he said.
Hinckley Jr. said he doesn’t remember what he was feeling when he attacked the president and wounded three others.
Hinckley Jr. said he wishes he could take it all back.
He said he hopes to soften his public image and show people he's “kind of an ordinary guy."
Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. He spent more than 30 years at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Alfred Antenucci, a Garfield Heights man, is credited with helping save the president's life by hitting Hinckley in back of the head after he started shooting at Reagan.
“He got one shot off and then my father started to hit him, hitting him in the back of the head,” said Dominic Antenucci, Alfred's son, in an interview with News 5 last year.
Just a few years later, Al Antenucci died from heart complications.
President Reagan addressed Antenucci’s death during his weekly radio addresson the shooting’s fourth anniversary.
”The man who helped wrestle my assailant to the ground,” he said. “Mr. Antenucci died last May. He was a proud American who never asked a thing of others, but who willingly risked his own life to save another."
Watch our report from March 2021 below:
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