LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The Secret Service agent who pushed President Reagan into a limousine and out of the way of John Hinckley's last bullet two years ago Wednesday says his training to 'cover and evacuate' took over.
'At the moment it goes down, there's hardly any feeling except doing your duty,' Jerry Parr told the Arkansas Gazette in an interview.
Parr, now assistant director in the Secret Service office of protective research, was with Reagan when he was shot outside a hotel in Washington. The training to 'cover and evacuate' reminded Parr to step in front of the president's body, then get him out of the area, he said.
'All my experience came together,' Parr said. 'It was a matter of training -- a matter of armor and flesh.'
Reagan had already been hit and was sped to a hospital. A secret service agent, a Washington policeman and press secretary James Brady also were shot.
Other agents followed their training, too, to surround Hinckley - keeping him from fleeing and also protecting him from any bystanders who might try to harm him, Parr said.
If the Secret Service had seen Hinckley waiting in the press area outside the hotel, the agents might have prevented the attack, Parr said.
'We didn't have that opportunity, but it is one human being looking into the eyes of another that is the best detector,' he said.
Security for presidents has been greatly improved since President Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963, an event that has the Secret Service 'still vibrating,' Parr said. But no system is foolproof, he said.
'There are four rings of protection around the president - training, intelligence, planning and physical protection -- and if the fourth ring breaks down, you have a very serious problem,' Parr said.
