Tim McCarthy | |
---|---|
Born | Timothy J. McCarthy June 20, 1949 |
Alma mater | University of Illinois (BS) Lewis University (MS) |
Occupation(s) | Secret Service special agent Chief of police |
Known for | Saving President Reagan during his assassination attempt. |
Children | 3 |
Timothy J. McCarthy (born June 20, 1949) is an American former police officer and special agent in the United States Secret Service. McCarthy is best known for defending President Ronald Reagan during the assassination attempt on Reagan's life on Monday, March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C.
During the assassination attempt, McCarthy spread his stance to protect Reagan as six bullets were being fired by the would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr. [1] McCarthy stepped in front of President Reagan, taking a bullet to the chest, but made a full recovery.
After the assassination attempt, McCarthy was hailed as a hero and received the NCAA Award of Valor in 1982. [2] [3]
McCarthy was born on June 20, 1949, and was raised in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood. He graduated from St. Denis Grammar School and Leo Catholic High School. He then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [4]
He joined the Fighting Illini football team as a walk on in his freshman year. He earned a football scholarship for his sophomore year and played as strong safety his junior year before an injury ended his college career. [5]
While there, he was a member of Delta Tau Delta. [6] He served 22 years in the United States Secret Service. [7]
His career included eight years assigned to the Presidential Protective Division in Washington, D.C., and 14 years as a criminal investigator in Chicago. [8] McCarthy was the special agent in charge of the Secret Service Chicago Division from 1989 until his retirement in October 1993. [9]
On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. opened fire on President Ronald Reagan as he exited the Washington Hilton Hotel after giving a speech, firing six bullets in 1.7 seconds. [10] As Special Agent In Charge Jerry Parr quickly pushed Reagan into the limousine, McCarthy put himself in the line of fire and spread his body in front of Reagan to make himself a target. [11] [1] [10] [12] He was struck in the chest by the fourth bullet, the bullet traversing McCarthy's right lung, diaphragm, and right lobe of the liver. [12] [13] [14] McCarthy was not wearing a bullet proof vest.
McCarthy was not supposed to be on duty that day. At the last minute, the Secret Service received a request for an officer to provide protection to Reagan for an AFL-CIO luncheon on March 31. McCarthy and a colleague flipped a coin to see who would have to fill in on their day off; McCarthy lost. [10]
McCarthy was taken to George Washington University Hospital, and was operated on near the president. [15] He was later released after a 2-hour surgery. [16]
McCarthy became the Chief of the Orland Park Police Department in May 1994. [17]
In 1998, he ran for the Democratic nomination for Illinois Secretary of State against Jesse White of Chicago, then the Recorder of Deeds for Cook County, and State Senator Penny Severns of Decatur. [5] Severns was removed from the ballot after failing to meet the signature requirement. McCarthy ran an outsider campaign that took a law-enforcement approach to the Secretary of State's office including standardized DUI tests and easier to read license plates. [18] White won the primary election with 55% of the vote to McCarthy's 45% of the vote, or a margin of 100,195 votes. [19]
In 1999, he earned a Master of Science degree in criminal/social justice from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. [17]
In March 2016, he was awarded the first annual Chief of Police of the Year award by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. The award cited his legislative advocacy, supervision of the building of the country's first police station to receive a LEED Gold certification, working to establish the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, promoting crisis intervention training for officers and the use of Narcan to prevent heroin overdoses. [20] From July 2016 to April 2017 he served as the acting village manager of Orland Park. [4] [21] In recent years, he has served as the corporate vice president of a security systems company. He speaks to schools and conventions about his experiences as a Secret Service Agent during the Reagan administration.
On July 1, 2020, McCarthy announced his retirement effective August 1, 2020. [22]
McCarthy is married and has three children. [17]
McCarthy was interviewed in 2016 about the release of John Hinckley Jr., and responded: "I don't have to agree with it, but I expected it. There are very few cases that people, after a period of time, are viewed as no longer being a danger to themselves or others. I hope they're right about it. It's a big decision. I give the judge credit. That's what he gets paid for." [23]
Anton Joseph Cermak was an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from April 7, 1931, until his assassination in 1933. He was killed by an assassin, whose likely target was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but Cermak was shot instead after a bystander hit the perpetrator with a purse.
The United States Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government. Until 2003, the Secret Service was part of the Department of the Treasury, as the agency was founded in 1865 to combat the then-widespread counterfeiting of U.S. currency. President Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation on April 14, 1865, just a few hours before he was assassinated. In 1901, the Secret Service was also assigned to presidential protection duties.
Orland Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion in Will County. The village is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, Orland Park had a population of 58,703.
Giuseppe Zangara was an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's inauguration. During a night speech by Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago along with injuring five bystanders.
James Scott Brady was an American public official who served as assistant to the U.S. president and the 17th White House Press Secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded Brady during Hinckley’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, which occurred two months and ten days after Reagan's inauguration.
John Warnock Hinckley Jr. is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, the police officer Thomas Delahanty, the Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and the White House Press Secretary, James Brady. Brady was left disabled and eventually died from his injuries.
The Reagans is a 2003 American biographical drama television film about U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his family. It was directed by Robert Allan Ackerman and written by Jane Marchwood, Tom Rickman, and Elizabeth Egloff, based on the 1991 biography First Ladies Volume II by Carl Sferrazza Anthony. It stars James Brolin as Reagan and Judy Davis as First Lady Nancy Reagan. The supporting cast includes Željko Ivanek, Mary Beth Peil, Bill Smitrovich, Shad Hart, Zoie Palmer, Richard Fitzpatrick, Vlasta Vrána, Francis Xavier McCarthy, Frank Moore, Aidan Devine, and John Stamos.
Roy Herman Kellerman was a U.S. Secret Service senior agent who was assigned to protect United States President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. In his reports, later testimony and interviews, Kellerman outlines in detail his role in the immediate aftermath of the assassination.
Death of a President is a 2006 British mockumentary political thriller film about the fictional assassination of George W. Bush, the 43rd and at the time, incumbent U.S. President, on 19 October 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. The film is presented as a future history docudrama and uses actors, archival video footage as well as computer-generated special effects to present the hypothetical aftermath the event had on civil liberties, racial profiling, journalistic sensationalism and foreign policy.
Lewis University is a private Lasallian university in Romeoville, Illinois. It enrolls around 6,500 students in more than 80 undergraduate programs, 35 graduate programs, and accelerated programs for working adults.
On March 30, 1981, President of the United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had developed an erotomanic obsession.
Thomas K. Delahanty is an American retired police officer who served in the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. He was one of the people who were wounded during the assassination attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan on Monday, March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C.
Leslie William Coffelt was an officer of the White House Police, a branch of the Secret Service, who was killed while successfully defending U.S. President Harry S. Truman against an attempted assassination on November 1, 1950, at Blair House, where the president was living during renovations at the White House.
The NCAA Award of Valor is presented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to recognize "courageous action or noteworthy bravery" by persons involved with intercollegiate athletics.
Jerry S. Parr was a United States Secret Service special agent who is best known for defending President Ronald Reagan during the attempt on the president's life on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C. Parr pushed Reagan into the presidential limousine and made the critical decision to divert the presidential motorcade to George Washington University Hospital instead of returning to the White House. He was honored for his actions that day with U.S. Congress commendations, and is widely credited with helping to save the president's life.
On September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Manson Family cult, attempted to assassinate United States president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. Fromme, who was standing a little more than an arm's length from Ford, pointed a M1911 pistol at him in the public grounds of the California State Capitol building and without chambering a round in the gun, unsuccessfully attempted to fire.
On November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, an unemployed 21-year-old man, fired multiple shots at the White House using a semi-automatic rifle. At least seven bullets hit the second floor. Neither President Barack Obama nor First Lady Michelle Obama were home at the time; the president was not in Washington, D.C., having been on a trip abroad. However, the couple's youngest daughter, Sasha, and the first lady's mother, Marian Shields Robinson, were in the White House. No one was injured. It took four days for the Secret Service to realize that bullets had struck the White House. Michelle Obama learned of the shooting from an usher, then summoned Mark J. Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, to find out why the first family had not been informed.
'In the Secret Service,' [McCarthy] continued, 'we're trained to cover and evacuate the president. And to cover the president, you have to get as large as you can, rather than hitting the deck.'