Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy, Sr. was shot on June 5, 1968

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. (known as “Bobby”) had just won the 1968 Democrat Presidential Primary in California when he was shot several times by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Kennedy was considered the front runner for the Democrat nomination. In 1968, the country was torn by the Vietnam War and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term. As a sitting United States Senator, former Attorney General, and brother of the late President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy was considered by many to be the choice to bring the country together.

Immediately after winning the California primary, Kennedy spoke to a cheering crowd of supporters in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom. As he was escorted out the rear of the hotel by athletes Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier, Sirhan Sirhan stepped forward. He was holding a gun hidden by a campaign poster. Sirhan shot Kennedy several times. Five others were also wounded.

Johnson and Grier tackled Sirhan and held him to the ground. Kennedy was rushed to the hospital, but died of his wounds on June 6, 1968.

Sirhan Sirhan was born in Palestine. He confessed to the crime, saying he believed Kennedy was partly responsible for the oppression of Palestinians. He was originally sentenced to death, but the California Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences in 1972. Sirhan Sirhan is spending his life in prison.

Hubert Humphrey ended up winning the Democrat nomination. He lost the 1968 Presidential race to Richard Nixon.