Intense manhunt ends with Tenn Waffle House shooter, Travis Reinking, in custody
The Illinois man suspected of murdering four people inside a Tennessee Waffle House Sunday is in custody, Metro Nashville police said Monday afternoon.
At about 1 p.m., Metro Nashville police said that 29-year-old Travis Reinking of Morton, Illinois, was taken into custody, “moments ago.”
The suspect was found in a wooded area just a mile south of where he’s accused of killing four people less than 36 hours earlier, Police said.
Reinking was photographed in the back of a police cruiser. wearing a red long sleeve t-shirt, ripped at the shoulder, with tears showing scratches on his right shoulder, and dirt-covered jeans.
The captured fugitive killer was taken to a precinct where he requested a lawyer and wouldn’t speak with investigators. He will be booked on four counts of criminal homicide, police said.
Nashville Metro police responded to a tip that someone matching Reinking’s description had been seen entering a wooded area. Investigators followed a pathway in the woods, and one detective noticed a man in front of him and recognized him as Reinking.
Officers ordered Reinking to get on the ground, and Lara said he complied immediately and was placed in handcuffs.
Investigators cut off a backpack he was wearing and saw a silver semi-automatic weapon, a holster, a flashlight and some ammunition. In his back pocket he had a Colorado ID that identified him, police said.
More than 80 Nashville police officers had been searching for Travis Reinking early Monday, authorities said. Agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol were also assisting in the manhunt as disturbing reports about Reinking ’s past behavior came to light.
He was also added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.
Authorities said Reinking was nearly naked, wearing only a green jacket and carrying an assault-style rifle when he opened fire in the parking lot and then stormed the restaurant of Waffle House in Antioch, outside of Nashville, killing four people Sunday morning. Four others were injured.
Investigators are still unsure why he charged into the Antioch Waffle House, wearing nothing but a green jacket, at about 3:25 a.m. local time Sunday. Neighbors then saw him leaving his apartment complex in a black pair of pants headed for the woods.
Reinking it was reported, also boosted a car from a BMW dealership last Tuesday, which cops later tracked down to his apartment complex, Aaron said.
He’d shown up to the dealership in nearby Brentwood, Tenn., asking about buying a car. But he never gave his ID, got his hands on a key fob and took off in the car, Aaron said.
Brentwood cops dropped the rush-hour car chase because the car was fitted with GPS, and they knew they could find it later. It was recovered at his apt complex, but neither “The police department, nor the dealership knew who he was [or his criminal record],” police sources said.
Travis Reinking, shot and killed 4 people early Sunday Morning during breakfast at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tenn
Police credit a quick-thinking of Thomas Shaw Jr., a customer who wrestled the gun away from the suspect for preventing more loss of life.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said at a news conference that Reinking, 29, was last seen Sunday around a wooded area near an apartment complex where he lived. Authorities said Reinking could be armed and weren’t ruling out that he had left the area. He was believed to be wearing only pants and no shirt or shoes.
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Naked gunman who killed four at Tennessee Waffle House, still on the loose! Cops say Travis Reinking also injured three after opening fire with an AR-15 having early Sunday breakfast
Reinking who Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson who warned may have “mental issues” was arrested by agents with the U.S. Secret Service back in July after he crossed a restricted area near the White House, officials said. He was detained after refusing to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.
In May 2016, deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, were called to a CVS parking lot. Reinking told officers that Taylor Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and that his family was also involved, according to a report released Sunday.
In August, after the White House incident, Reinking told police in Tazewell County, Illinois, that he wanted to file a report about 20 to 30 people tapping into his computer and phone. He also complained that people were “barking like dogs” outside his residence, according to a report.
Reinking agreed to go to a local hospital for an evaluation after repeatedly resisting the request, the report said.
Another report from the sheriff’s office said Reinking barged into a community pool in Tremont, Illinois, 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.
Reinking was not armed when he was detained near the White House. However, state police in Illinois, revoked his state firearms card at the request of the FBI and four guns were taken from him, authorities said. The AR-15 used in the shootings was among the firearms seized after U.S. Secret Service agents arrested him last July.
Sheriff Robert Huston in Tazewell County, Illinois, said deputies allowed Reinking’s father to take possession of the guns on the promise that he would “keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis.” Huston added that, based on deputies’ encounters with Reinking, “there’s certainly evidence that there’s some sort of mental health issues involved.”
His father, Jeffrey Reinking, “has now acknowledged giving them back,” Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said.
Police recovered three of the four guns that were originally taken from Reinking, officials said. They believe he is armed with at least one handgun.

Thomas Shaw Jr is credited with saving lives when he risked his own life to disarm the gunman
Witnesses said Reinking drove into the Waffle House parking lot in his gold Chevy Silverado pickup and sat there for about four minutes before opening fire outside the restaurant.
The victims fatally shot in the parking have been identified as restaurant. employee Taurean Sanderlin, 29, of Goodlettsville, and Joe Perez, 20, of Nashville.
Reinking then went inside the restaurant and opened fire, police said. Among those killed inside the restaurant is DeEbony Groves, a 21-year student at Nashville’s Belmont University.
Also dead is Akilah Dasilva, 23, from Antioch. A rap artist and highly sought after music video producer who had such skills behind the camera that he was a favourite among many in the Nashville’s entertainment world. Dasilva’s was also a student at Middle Tennessee State University and aspired to be a music engineer.
He was at the restaurant with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Tia Waggoner, who was wounded and is being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where surgeons were trying to save her leg.
Others listed as injured were Sharita Henderson, 24, of Antioch, and James Shaw Jr., a 29-year-old restaurant patron, whom police said suffered minor wounds from wrestling the gun away Reinking.
Shaw, who is a Nashville native who works as a wireless technician for AT&T.
Shaw said he saw pounced on the suspect after making up his mind that “he was going to have to work to kill me.”
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