Nashville Waffle House shooting suspect Travis Reinking arrested

Travis Reinking, the suspect in the latest shootout in the US, has been arrested. Metro Police announced Monday afternoon that the Nashville Waffle House shooter was taken into custody after a 34-hour manhunt.

Reinking was arrested in a wooded area less than a mile from the scene of the shooting. He had a handgun and ammunition in the backpack he was carrying when he was arrested.

“At 1:07 this afternoon, Travis Reinking was taken into custody in a wooded area near here,” Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said in a news conference. “He will be booked on four counts of criminal homicide.”

The motive for the killing is still unknown. Aaron said he did not know if the shootings were racially motivated. Reinking declined to speak when arrested, only saying he wanted a lawyer.

Earlier, police said a citizen found a laptop bag outside the restaurant. It was empty except for a handwritten ID card bearing the name Travis Reinking. It’s unknown if it was discarded before or after the shooting, though he is believed to have been in that area on Saturday night.

Waffle House shooting

Around 3:25 a.m. on Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee, Reinking, a 29-year-old construction worker, was partially naked and wore only a green jacket when he reportedly opened fire in a parking lot of a local Waffle House restaurant. He sat in a pickup truck for approximately four minutes before coming out and shooting with an AR-15.

He fatally shot two people outside the restaurant. He then went inside and continued to shoot. He killed a third person and injuring a fourth one, who died later at a hospital. Four other people were treated for injuries.

James Shaw Jr, hero

One customer, 29-year-old James Shaw Jr, hid near the bathrooms before rushing to the shooting and wrestling his rifle away. He took advantage of the moment when Reinking needed to reload his firearm. He pushed the gunman outside the restaurant, but Reinking, who was naked from the waist down, fled on foot.

Shaw Jr was grazed by a bullet shot by Reinking at his direction. He has been hailed a hero for saving many people’s lives.

He did not think of himself as a hero, though. “I choose to react because I didn’t want to die. I just wanted to live. I didn’t really fight that man to save everyone else. That might not be a popular thing to say,” he said during a press conference.

Reinking’s arrest records

It wasn’t the first time Reinking, who allegedly had a history of erratic conduct and delusions, had been arrested. In May 2016, police responded to a call from his parents. He had claimed pop star Taylor Swift was personally stalking him and hacking his phone. He was said to be hostile toward police and did not recognise police authority. He was found to possess several firearms.

He was reported in 2017 by an employee of his father for carrying a rifle. He was allegedly wearing a pink dress at that time. In another incident, a public pool director called the police to report Reinking, who was wearing a pink women’s housecoat, came to the pool and exposed himself to lifeguards.

In July last year, he was arrested by US Secret Service near the White House after crossing a barrier and refusing the leave. He was charged with unlawful entry. The court dismissed his case after he successfully performed 32 hours of community service.

Authorities had revoked his state firearms licence following his arrest. They seized four of his weapons, which included the AR-15 rifle he used in the Waffle House shooting, and gave the guns to his father, who held a valid state authorisation card, when he asked for them. Nashville police now believe that his father returned the guns to Reinking before the shooting.

More recently, Reinking stole a BMW from a dealership. Police used GPS to track the vehicle to his apartment. It was only four days before the shooting incident.