Reagan Aide Brady’s Death Ruled a Homicide

A state of Vir­ginia med­ical exam­iner ruled the death of for­mer White House press sec­re­tary James Brady a homi­cide after deter­min­ing that his 1981 gun­shot wound led to his death ear­lier this week.Brady was shot and suf­fered a dev­as­tat­ing head wound in the assas­si­na­tion attempt on then-U.S. pres­i­dent Ronald Reagan.Friday’s deter­mi­na­tion means that more charges could be filed against John Hinck­ley, Jr., who has been at a psy­chi­atric facil­ity since being found not guilty by rea­son of insan­ity at a trial for the shoot­ing.

Brady died Mon­day at the age of 73 from what his fam­ily described as a series of health issues.Brady was near Rea­gan out­side a Wash­ing­ton hotel when John Hinck­ley, opened fire, leav­ing Brady par­a­lyzed and per­ma­nently dis­abled. Hinck­ley is now 59 and remains in U.S. cus­tody at a psy­chi­atric insti­tu­tion in Washington.