Ronald Reagan shooter John Hinckley Jr speaks out after Thomas Crooks bid to assassinate Donald Trump

The man who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan has spoken out about Thomas Crooks' attempt on Donald Trump's life. 

Crooks used an 'AR-style' weapon to fire several shots at the former president on Saturday afternoon, killing one and injuring three including the Republican candidate. 

Crooks' shooting came 43 years after John Hinckley Jr., 69, managed to wound Reagan just two months after he was first inaugurated by shooting him with a revolver outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC in 1981.

Hinckley, who now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, after being released from psychiatric care in 2022, was found not guilty of attempted murder after it emerged that he carried out the plot in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster. 

It seems that Hinckley has left his president assassinating days behind him, and is outright condemning others for doing what he did. 

John Hinckley shot at Reagan in Washington DC in 1981

John Hinckley Jr., 69, managed to wound Reagan just two months after he was first inaugurated in 1981

Crooks used an 'AR-style' weapon to fire several shots at the former president on Saturday afternoon

He said on Wednesday, four days after Crooks tried to take Trump's life at a campaign rally: 'Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance.' 

For 34 years, Hinckley was kept under lock and key in St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington DC, where psychiatrists described him as an 'unpredictably dangerous' man who could harm himself and others around him. 

But just four years after he was admitted to the facility, the hospital's administrators petitioned a judge to allow him to leave on a conditional release. 

While various legal attempts were thwarted or withdraw, he was granted more and more conditional and supervised privileges, included off-site trips, until he was given a full and unconditional release in June 2022. 

Hinckley now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia 

Since his release, he has become a painter and a musician

He has since apologised to the Reagan family for the attempted murder

Since his release, he has become a painter and a musician, often seen flogging his art and promoting his gigs and music on X. 

He has also apologised to the Reagan family, as well as the family of then-White House press secretary James Blake, who was left disabled after he was shot in the head during the attack, and eventually died 33 years after the attack as a result of his injuries. 

Investigators have still not determined Crooks' motivation to shoot at Trump on Saturday. 

An FBI official told senators that there was no indication that Crooks held any particularly strong political views, having searched his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania as well as his laptop and two phones. 

He also searched several high-profile figures as he was planning his attack, including Biden, FBI director Christopher Wray, US attorney general Merrick Garland, and an unnamed member of the British Royal Family.