Senator Robert F. Kennedy, '48 was shot and critically wounded in the brain as he left a California primary victory rally in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel at 3:15 (EDT) this morning.

The 42-year-old New York Democrat was quickly rushed to a local receiving hospital, administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, given transfusions of plasma, and in less than an hour transferred for surgery to the Good Samaritan Hospital 12 blocks away.

At 5:20, Kennedy underwent emergency surgery to remove a bullet from his head. At that time, his press secretary, Frank Manckiewicz announced the first medical bulletin of the day: Kennedy was unconcious and in "very critical condition," but was breathing unassisted. The Senator's heartbeat, Manckiewicz said, was strong and had not faltered.

The shooting came moments after the former Attorney General left an uproarious celebration of his primary victory over Senator Eugene McCarthy in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel. Flanked by relatives and aides, he was entering a small kitchen enroute to his suite to spend the rest of the night.

Suddenly, amidst a burst of shots, the Senator and three well-wishers in the crowd around him collapsed. The crowd's laughter and cheers quickly turned to gasps and weeping; it pressed toward the narrow door of the room in which Kennedy lay in the arms of his aides.

In his victory speech, he called for an end to "violence and division." After concluding, "On to Chicago and let's win there" brushed his hair back, grinned, gave a Churchillian V-signal, and turned--to meet his would-be assassin, minutes later.

Acording to television reports, the assassin, a youngish man, about 5'5" and 130 lbs, with dark hair and a swarthy complexion was standing on some sort of a table. As Kennedy entered the passageway, fired a full chamber--eight shots--from a .22 caliber revolver.

While chaos erupted and aides rushed to the fallen candidate, two Kennedy associates, 1960 decathlon champion Rafer Johnson and Los Angeles Rams lineman Roosevelt Grier grabbed the gunman and disarmed him.

The suspect was immediately taken into custody by Los Angeles police, reportedly advised of his rights to counsel, and interrogated. Shortly after 6 a.m., Los Angeles Police Chief Thomas Reddin told reporters that the suspect had refused counsel, declined to give his name, and spoke only one word--"yes"--to an unspecified question.

In general, the Los Angeles police appeared to have handled the attempted assassination with a good deal more circumspection than did the Dallas police in November, 1963. They did not parade the assailant before the press; and did not even make public the assassin's location after his arrest.

Kennedy's prognosis was still unknown in mid-morning. Although full details would not be known until the still-incomplete surgery ended, several doctors interviewed on television were optimistic about Kennedy's chances for survival. They cited his failure to lose consciousness immediately, a report confirmed by videotape shots of his face shortly after the assault, as well as the continued stability of his pulse and respiration.

A close friend of the candidate, Georgetown University neurosurgeon Dr. Alfred Weusenhaupt told a CBS interviewer that Kennedy's chances of retaining his intellectual and speech fuctions were fairly good.

Basing his comments on the entry point of the small bullet--the right mastoid bone behind the ear--as well as the fact that Kennedy is right-handed, Weusenhaupt said that Kennedy might possibly lose only some vision and use of his left arm.

Another good sign was the speed with which Kennedy's bleeding was aparently stopped.

The attempted assassination of Robert F. Kennedy concluded the most erratic, emotion-driven week of the former Attorney General's elective political career.