(CNN) John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was released Saturday from a Washington psychiatric hospital.

A worker at St. Elizabeth's Hospital told CNN he saw Hinckley leave the hospital grounds. Before departing, Hinckley walked around and got into a car with some people wishing him good luck, the worker said.

In July, a federal judge decided to grant Hinckley, 61, "full-time convalescent leave" from St. Elizabeth's Hospital. The order allows him to live full time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, but still under certain restrictions.

"The very carefully considered decision by the court to release Mr. Hinckley based on the copious evidence by medical professionals and government expert witnesses should give great comfort to a concerned citizenry that the mental health system and the judicial system worked and worked well," Hinckley's longtime lawyer Barry William Levine said in a statement.

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