Family shocked, angry

Press, 1 April 1981, Page 1

Family shocked, angry

NZPA.' • •■-•- Washington .-, ' Mrs Nancy. Reagan had returned to the White House from a Georgetown luncheon .. and had just taken o'ff/her coat .when a Secret-Service agent told .. ,-iierythat Mr Reagan had • ;been*ishpt‘ a.t.' She -rushed - : to the hospital and it was not- until she was there •thlti.’ she learned that /her' - .husb bjn'd ’'had . been wounded.. ; . I Mrs .Reagan’s press see•jretary, Mrs -Sheila, Patton, said that Mrs Reagan had later visited the/hospital’s. . chapel, and - had had tears in her-eyes when '.shelhad - ? emerged but bad.remained ■calm,;' .■

• ; During • Mr .; -Reagan’s operation Mrs Reagan had waited outside .the. room. She had talked with? the wives' '.of the other_-men wounded in :the- shooting. The-rest of the Reagan family* most of . them:. m California, secluded themselves amid' tight; Secret Service-. protection _ and prepared .-to. • fly. to. Wash--4D Angeles.; JMiss .Maureen- Reagan, differing ■with her father over guncontrol ■ legislation,, said that something had to be done do- curb the “use, of .:firearms<’? --

”‘T think the .American people have got to becomeangry about ;, the ■ crimes m~

this country and the ability of other people to do this? to ’ other - -human beings and we have got to stop it right now,”- she said. _ Mr and Mrs Reagan were to have coma to Los Angeles on April 24 Jo attend the wedding of Miss Reagan, aged 39, his daughter by his first wife, the actress Jane Wyman. Miss Reagan said, “My reaction (to the attempted assassination) is fury and rage and anger and that in this?country this kind of garbage still goes on.” Fighting back tears, she added, “And by God it is not going to happen to this-President.- By God- it’s

not going to happen to this President.” t President Reagan s adopted son, Michael, aged 35, told reporters, outside his home in Los Angeles, “It saddens me that some* thing like this should happen. My dad’s been, in good spirits (for 70 years. He is a strong person and he is in good shape.” Mr Reagan’s elder, brother* Neil, aged 72, said at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego* California, “I felt complete disbelief and shock. I expected something like this to ’ come. It’s the way society (istoday.”