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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Del Quentin Wilber

Sound of gunfire carries eerie echoes of Reagan's shooting outside the same Washington hotel

US Trump Hotel - (1981 AP)

When President Ronald Reagan left the Washington Hilton Hotel and headed for his waiting limousine on a gray March afternoon, he was exposed for mere seconds. That was all it took for a would-be assassin to take aim and fire.

Reagan was hit in the chest and nearly died. Forty-five years later, another gunman is accused of trying to storm into the same hotel's ballroom during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. The suspect fired at least one shot, authorities said, before being subdued in a chaotic scene that forced the evacuation of President Donald Trump and other top administration officials. The gunman never entered the ballroom or was close to the president.

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