WASHINGTON -- Seven Secret Service agents who protected President Reagan during the March 30 assassination attempt will share $45,000 in awards, the Secret Service announced today.
Secret Service Director H. Stuart Knight will present four of the agents $10,000 each for their acts of valor when Reagan was shot. Two other agents, including the driver of the presidential limouisine will get $2,000 and a seventh agent $1,000 in a special recognition ceremony later today.
Treasury Secretary Donald Regan also will present the agents with the department's highest honor, the exceptional service award.
The four agents getting $10,000 each are Jerry Parr, D.V. McCarthy, Tim McCarthy and Ray Shaddick. Receiving $2,000 will be Thomas D. Unrue, the limousine driver, and Russell Miller. Carlton D. Spriggs, an agent stationed across the street from the scene, will get $1,000. He pulled his gun and could have shot the assailant, the award will read, but showed remarkable restraint when it became obvious innocent bystanders would have been hit.
Parr was the agent who pushed President Reagan toward the back seat of the limousine as six shots were fired. The Secret Service report on the awards said the bullet that struck Reagan apparently hit him as Parr was shoving him into the car. The bullet, said the report, ricocheted off the side of the car through the small space between the door and the body of the car.
Special agent D.V. McCarthy was the first law enforcement officer to reach John Hinckley, charged with the shooting. The agent pulled Hinckley down as his continued to pull the trigger on an empty gun, according to the Treasury Department's official review of the incident.
The third bullet fired struck special agent Tim McCarthy in the chest as he turned toward the sound of the shots, screening the president with raised arms. After his recovery, McCarthy was returned to the presidential guard detail.
Agent Shaddick and Parr escorted Reagan into the hospital, carrying him into the emergency room after his knees buckled. Only after the president's shirt was removed that the doctors realized he had been shot.
Miller, assigned to the agency's headquareters division, stepped in and took McCarthy's place in the protective detail when McCarthy was shot.
