At 2:27 p.m. on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan (Secret Service code name: Rawhide) walked out of a Washington hotel and was shot by John Hinckley Jr. In the confused moments that followed, no one was sure exactly what had happened—or if Mr. Reagan had even been hurt. In this excerpt from the forthcoming book "Rawhide Down," a detailed account of the attempted assassination, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr has just shoved Mr. Reagan into his car after hearing the gunshots.
As the president's limousine hurtled away from the Hilton, Jerry Parr glanced out the Lincoln's rear window. He counted three men down and wondered who had been hit. Turning, he noticed the telltale marks of a projectile's impact on the right rear door's bulletproof window. Parr had no idea what was happening. Was this a terrorist attack? Was the world at war? It occurred to him that he might have been hurt too, but he gave himself a quick once-over and decided he was fine. He took a deep breath, turned to the president, and helped him into the limousine's right rear seat. Reagan sat slumped forward—he looked like an exhausted basketball player taking a breather on the bench.
