Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer Ron Edmonds dies. His images of Reagan shooting are indelible

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly assigned to cover the Reagan White House, Associated Press photographer Ron Edmonds knew the most important part of the job was to keep watch on the president “at all times.”

He did that for 28 years.

But there was never a day like March 30, 1981. That was when Edmonds, who died Friday night in Virginia at age 77, took a series of images for the ages.

President Ronald Reagan had just spoken to members of the AFL-CIO at a Hilton hotel not far from the White House. As Reagan emerged from the hotel, John Hinckley Jr. used a revolver to fire at the president, his aides and his protective detail.

Edmonds was in place for an exclusive series of pictures taken across the roof of Reagan’s limousine as Reagan was struck and then shoved down and into the vehicle. It sped to the hospital where doctors saved the president’s life.

That coverage and those indelible images won Edmonds the Pulitzer for spot news photography.

“I wish it had been for a picture that had not been of violence, of people being hurt,” he said when the award was announced on April 12, 1982.

Edmonds was summoned to the Oval Office for a chat with the president the next day. Reagan joked, Edmonds said, that photographers always asked him for “just one more” picture. He could replay the shooting scene, the president said, but this time he would use a stuntman.

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