Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
| Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy | |
|---|---|
Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor immediately after the shooting. Kneeling beside him is 17-year-old busboy Juan Romero, who was shaking Kennedy's hand when Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots.[1] | |
| Location | Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 34°03′35″N 118°17′50″W / 34.0597°N 118.2971°W |
| Date | June 5, 1968 12:15 a.m. (UTC−7) |
| Target | Robert F. Kennedy |
Attack type | Political assassination, mass shooting |
| Weapons | Iver Johnson .22 LR revolver |
| Deaths | 1 (Kennedy died on June 6, 1968, from his injuries) |
| Injured | 5[a] |
| Perpetrator | Sirhan Sirhan |
| Verdict | Guilty on all counts |
| Convictions | First-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder (5 counts)[2] |
| Motive | Revenge for Kennedy's support for Israel in the Six-Day War[3] |
| Sentence | Death in 1969; commuted in 1972 to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole |
| ||
|---|---|---|
|
Personal
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Senator from New York
Presidential campaign
Legacy
|
||
On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Medical teams attempted to treat him, but he died the following day.
Kennedy, a United States senator and candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4. He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom. After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 25 hours later. His body was returned to the East and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian who held strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs, testified at trial in 1969 that he killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought"; he was convicted and sentenced to death. Due to People v. Anderson, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole. His parole request has been denied numerous times. Kennedy's assassination prompted the U.S. Secret Service to extend their security to protect presidential candidates. Numerous conspiracy theories arose related to Kennedy's murder.
The assassination was one of four that murdered major political figures in the 1960s in the United States, the others being the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968.
- ^ Esty-Kendall 2018.
- ^ State of California 2022.
- ^ "Part II: Why Sirhan Sirhan Assassinated Robert Kennedy by Mel Ayton". Crimemagazine.com. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).