WASHINGTON — The man who tried to assassinate President Reagan has been released from a Washington mental hospital for good, more than 35 years after the shooting.

A spokeswoman for the District of Columbia’s Department of Mental Health said early Saturday that all patients scheduled to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital had been discharged. John Hinckley Jr. was among those scheduled for discharge.

A reporter saw a hired car pull into the driveway of the Hinckley home around 2:30 p.m. Officers from the Kingsmill Police Department chased reporters away.

A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old Hinckley is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full-time at his mother’s home in Williamsburg.

Hinckley had already been visiting Williamsburg for long stretches at a time and preparing for the full-time transition. He’ll have to follow a lot of rules while in Williamsburg, but his longtime lawyer Barry Levine says he thinks Hinckley will be a “citizen about whom we can all be proud.”

Hinckley will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week. He hasn’t yet done paid work in Williamsburg, but he has volunteered at a church and a mental health hospital, where he has worked in the library and in food service.

Hinckley’s mother lives in the gated community of Kingsmill. The unassuming home is on the 13th hole of a golf course. Hinckley’s room has a king-size bed and TV and is decorated with paintings he has done of houses and cats, according to court documents. In the past, he has done chores such as cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and leaf-raking. After a year, he may live alone or with roommates.

Hinckley will continue to go to therapy while in Williamsburg. For at least the first six months, he’ll see his psychiatrist twice a month and he’ll have to attend weekly group therapy sessions. He’ll also see a therapist individually. He’ll return to Washington once a month to St. Elizabeths’ outpatient department to discuss his mental health and compliance with the conditions of his leave.

Hinckley got a driver’s license in 2011. The court order in his case lets him drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg by himself, which gets him to Newport News but not Norfolk.


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