JFK Second Shooter: 'JFK: The Smoking Gun' Documentary Claims George Hickey, Secret Service Agent, Accidentally Killed Kennedy

A new documentary claims that a second shooter accidentally played a role in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Reelz Channel documentary, entitled “JFK: The Smoking Gun,” alleges that Secret Service agent George Hickey accidentally shot JFK during his November 1963 trip to Dallas, Texas, The Huffington Post reports. The documentary tracks the four-year investigation of Colin McLaren, a police detective who determined that Hickey had inadvertently contributed to the Kennedy assassination.

During an event at the Television Critics Association press tour, McLaren alleged that Hickey, who rode in the car directly behind JFK, had been drinking the night before Kennedy was assassinated, The Huffington Post reports. In addition, the detective claimed that he uncovered evidence that Hickey wasn’t qualified to use the weapon that he had been issued.

“It was his first time in the follow car, his first time holding the assault weapon he was using,” McLaren told the crowd. The producers of “JFK: The Smoking Gun” theorize that Hickey grabbed his weapon to defend Kennedy after the assassin’s bullets were filed, The Huffington Post reports. However, his car unexpectedly stopped, causing Hickey to accidentally discharge his weapon and shoot Kennedy.

“We’re not saying this was intentional,” Bonar Menninger, who wrote a book about McLaren’s investigation, told reporters on Sunday. “This was a tragic accident in the heat of the moment.” The documentary does not suggest that Hickey was involved in any conspiracy to assassinate JFK.

Although the Hickey theory originated decades ago with the work of Howard Donahue, McLaren told reporters that it’s taken years to properly parse the evidence surrounding the assassination, The Huffington Post reports. According to McLaren and Menninger, the documentary will also allege that the U.S. government, including Robert F. Kennedy, conspired to cover up the Secret Service’s role in JFK’s death.

Despite the fact that Hickey sued Menninger in the 1990s, he insists that the documentary is not intended to “blacken the name” of the former Secret Service agent. “I’m sure that [Hickey] suffered greatly from this,” Menninger told reporters, according to The Huffington Post. “The fact that he passed on … maybe it’s time to talk about it.”

“JFK: The Smoking Gun” is slated to air on the Reelz Channel on Nov. 3, 2013.