On the evening of Monday, December 8, 1980, 40-year-old John Lennon was shot four times in the back (the fifth shot missed) in the entrance hallway of the Dakota, with hollow-point bullets from a Charter Arms .38 revolver, by Mark David Chapman. Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman earlier that same night.
The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. However, two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder. Three of the four bullets passed completely through and exited the front of Lennon's body, resulting in a total of seven gunshot wounds. While all four shots inflicted severe gunshot wounds, two of the wounds were fatal, hitting his left lung and the left subclavian artery, near where it branches off from the aorta.
Lennon staggered up the four steps to the security/reception area and said "I'm shot" and collapsed. Concierge John Hastings at first thought it was a joke, but then summoned the police by hitting the silent alarm button. Realizing there was no time to wait for an ambulance, the first policemen to arrive helped Lennon into the back seat of their patrol car, driving him immediately to nearby Roosevelt Hospital.
Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the Emergency Room at 11:15 p.m. The cause of death was reported as hypovolemic shock, after losing more than 80% of blood volume. On the following day, December 9, 1980, Lennon's wife Yoko Ono issued a statement: "There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean." Instead of a funeral, ten minutes of silence was observed worldwide the following Sunday, December 14, at 2 p.m. ET.
Chapman later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life. He is still in prison, 27 years since his arrest, having been denied parole five times. (He became known to the surviving Beatles and their friends as "He whose name shall not be mentioned.")
Two days after his death, Lennon's body was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. The ashes have been said to be sprinkled around Strawberry Fields, as well as in personal possession by Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono kept his bloodstained glasses after he died.
