The show won’t go on for the man who shot President Ronald Reagan.
The Market Hotel wrote on Instagram that it originally booked Hinckley for July 8 because it would be a “memorable night” and send a message that a criminal past “can be atoned for.” But it conceded the planned show was antagonizing people to the point that it was raising safety issues.
“If we were going to host an event for the principle, and potentially put others at risk in doing so, it shouldn’t be for some stunt booking — no offense to the artist,” the venue wrote. “We might feel differently if we believed the music was important and transcended the infamy, but that’s just not the case here.”
Hinckley opened fire on Reagan outside a Washington hotel in 1981, wounding the president, partially paralyzing press secretary James Brady and injuring two other men. Brady died in 2014.
Hinckley, found not guilty due to insanity, spent most of his confinement in a Washington mental hospital.
