The death Monday of President Ronald Reagan's press secretary James S. Brady has been ruled a homicide as a result of the gunshot wound he suffered in an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981, the D.C. police department said.
Brady lived through hours of surgery and had other operations over the years, but never regained full use of his limbs.
Whether the shooter, John Hinckley Jr., being treated at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital, would face new charges was unclear. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity after the shooting. The ruling was made by the medical examiner's office in Virginia. Bill Miller, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman, said prosecutors were reviewing the ruling, but could not comment. - Wire services