This
photo
provided
by Metro
Nashville
Police
Department
shows
Travis
Reinking,
who
police
are
searching
for in
connection
with a
fatal
shooting
at a
Waffle
House
restaurant
in the
Antioch
neighborhood
of
Nashville
early
Sunday,
April
22,
2018.
(Metro
Nashville
Police
Department)
Three of
the four
murdered
victims
Mental
health
and guns
an issue
after
Waffle
House
attack
By
SHEILA
BURKE
APNews.com
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. -
Without
knowing
who he
was or
what he
might
do,
police
briefly
had
Travis
Reinking
in their
sights
days
before
the
deadly
assault
on a
Waffle
House
restaurant.
Alerted
to the
theft of
a BMW
from a
car
dealer
last
week,
officers
decided
against
a risky
police
chase,
knowing
the car
had a
GPS
device
and
could
soon be
located.
Sure
enough,
the car
was
recovered
the same
day,
outside
Reinking’s
apartment.
But
police
didn’t
figure
out who
stole it
until
Sunday,
after
the
Waffle
House
attack.
By then,
police
say, the
29-year-old
with a
troubled
past
used an
assault
weapon —
the same
AR-15
once
taken
from him
at the
FBI’s
request
— to
kill
four
people
and
wound
four
others.
Reinking
escaped
on foot
from the
restaurant
after a
quick-thinking
customer
wrestled
the gun
from his
grasp,
and he
shed the
only
item of
clothing
he was
wearing,
a green
jacket.
By the
time he
was
captured
in the
woods
nearby,
police
had
searched
his
apartment,
and
found
the key
fob to
the
stolen
BMW.
Nashville
Police
Department
Lt.
Carlos
Lara
told
reporters
that a
detective
was
tipped
to the
suspect’s
presence
by some
construction
workers,
and
confronted
Reinking,
who lay
down on
the
ground
to be
handcuffed.
He
carried
a black
backpack,
with a
silver
semi-automatic
weapon
and
.45-caliber
ammunition.
Reinking
then
asked
for a
lawyer
and was
taken to
a
hospital
before
being
booked.
He was
formally
charged
late
Monday
with
four
counts
of
criminal
homicide
and held
on a $2
million
bond,
court
records
show.
The
arrest
ended a
24-hour
manhunt
involving
more
than 160
law
enforcement
officers,
but it
left
troubling
unanswered
questions
about
official
responses
to
months
of
bizarre
behavior
before
the
restaurant
attack,
including
encounters
with
police
in
Illinois
and
Colorado
and an
arrest
at the
White
House
that
raised
red
flags.
In
May
2016,
Reinking
told
deputies
from
Tazewell
County,
Illinois,
that
music
superstar
Taylor
Swift
was
stalking
him and
hacking
his
phone.
Reinking
agreed
to go to
a local
hospital
for an
evaluation
after
repeatedly
resisting
the
request,
the
sheriff’s
report
said.
He
would
make a
similar
claim
about
Swift in
Salida,
Colorado,
nearly a
year
later,
in March
2017,
authorities
there
said.
Another
Illinois
sheriff’s
report
said
Reinking
barged
into a
community
pool in
Tremont
last
June and
jumped
into the
water
wearing
a pink
woman’s
coat
over his
underwear.
Investigators
believed
he had
an AR-15
rifle in
his car
trunk,
but it
was
never
displayed.
No
charges
were
filed.
Last
July,
Reinking
was
arrested
by the
U.S.
Secret
Service
after he
entered
a
restricted
area
near the
White
House
and
refused
to
leave,
saying
he
wanted
to meet
President
Donald
Trump.
Reinking
was not
armed,
but at
the
FBI’s
request,
Illinois
police
revoked
his
state
firearms
card.
Four
guns,
including
the
AR-15
used in
the
shootings,
were
transferred
to his
father,
a
procedure
allowed
under
Illinois
law.
Signs of
paranoid
delusions
continued:
In
August,
Reinking
told
police
he
wanted
to file
a report
about 20
to 30
people
tapping
into his
computer
and
phone
and
people
“barking
like
dogs”
outside
his
residence,
according
to a
report.
“There’s
certainly
evidence
that
there’s
some
sort of
mental
health
issues
involved,”
Tazewell
County
Sheriff
Robert
Huston
said.
Huston
said
Jeffrey
Reinking
pledged
he would
“keep
the
weapons
secure
and out
of the
possession
of
Travis.”
And Don
Aaron, a
Nashville
Police
spokesman,
said
Reinking’s
father
“has now
acknowledged
giving
them
back” to
his son.
Bureau
of
Alcohol,
Tobacco,
Firearms
and
Explosives
special
Agent
Marcus
Watson
said
Monday
that his
father’s
action
is
“potentially
a
violation
of
federal
law.”
Phone
calls to
a number
listed
for the
father
went
unanswered.
It
is not
clear
why
Reinking
moved
recently
from
Morton,
Illinois,
and if
it had
anything
to do
with
being
near
Swift.
She has
a home
in
Nashville,
though
it is
not her
only
residence.
Police
say he
worked
in
construction
for a
while.
Police
said
about 20
customers
were in
the
restaurant
when
Reinking
opened
fire.
The
first
victims
were
Taurean
Sanderlin,
29, of
Goodlettsville,
and Joe
Perez,
20, of
Nashville,
shot
down in
the
parking
lot.
Sanderlin
was an
employee
at the
restaurant.
Perez’s
mother,
Trisha
Perez,
told the
Tennessean
newspaper
after
traveling
from
Texas to
collect
his body
that she
pinged
her
son’s
cellphone
and was
horrified
to see
the
locator
saying
it was
at the
Waffle
House.
DeEbony
Groves,
21, a
student
at
Nashville’s
Belmont
University;
and
Akilah
Dasilva,
23, a
rap
artist
and
music
video
producer,
were
killed
inside
the
restaurant
before
customer
James
Shaw Jr.
grabbed
the hot
muzzle
of the
assault
weapon
and
wrestled
it away.
Shaw,
29, a
Nashville
native
who
works as
a
wireless
technician
for
AT&T,
has been
hailed
as a
hero.