Maybe I just don't know my history, but has a Secret Service agent guarding ANY president actually ever shot someone trying to assassinate the president? No instances come to the top of my head. I mean if they're just there to take a bullet...
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that they may have shot (not killed) Reagan's assassin. Will check and update.
UPDATE:
Hinckley was never shot by the Secret Service. Two civilians subdued him and he was arrested.
Maybe I just don't know my history, but has a Secret Service agent guarding ANY president actually ever shot someone trying to assassinate the president? No instances come to the top of my head. I mean if they're just there to take a bullet...
Maybe I just don't know my history, but has a Secret Service agent guarding ANY president actually ever shot someone trying to assassinate the president? No instances come to the top of my head. I mean if they're just there to take a bullet...
February 7, 2001: While President George W. Bush was in the White House, Robert Pickett standing outside the fence, shot several times toward the building. The U.S. Park Police said, according to CNN correspondent Eileen O'Connor, that they confiscated a sophisticated handgun and, had the shooter not been at an obstructed angle view, he could have reached targets in the White House. Following a stand-off of about ten minutes, a Secret Service officer shot Pickett, wounding him. Pickett was then immediately taken to a hospital for surgery. Pickett was found to have emotional problems and employment grievances. Pickett had previously written letters to the President about these grievances. A court in July 2001 sentenced Pickett to three years imprisonment in connection with the incident.
April 13, 1972: Arthur Bremer carried a firearm to an event intending to shoot Nixon, but was put off by strong security. A few weeks later, he instead shot and seriously injured Governor of Alabama George Wallace.
February 22, 1974: Samuel Byck planned to kill Nixon by crashing a commercial airliner into the White House.[20] He hijacked the plane on the ground by force, and was told that it could not take off with the wheel blocks still in place. After he shot the pilot and copilot, an officer shot Byck through the plane's door window. He survived long enough to kill himself by shooting. These events were portrayed in the film The Assassination of Richard Nixon.