Four die in waffle house gun rampage
A GUNMAN wearing nothing but a coat stormed a Waffle House restaurant before dawn yesterday and killed four people, according to police in the US.
Officers in Tennessee have credited a customer with saving lives by wresting a weapon away from the gunman.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said via its Twitter account that authorities were searching for 29-year-old Travis Reinking, of Morton, Illinois.
Police said he was named as a person of interest because the pick-up vehicle the gunman used to drive to the restaurant was registered to Reinking.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said three people died at the scene and one person died at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre. Two other people were being treated there for gunshot wounds.
Medical Centre spokeswoman Jennifer Wetzel said one was in critical condition and the other was in critical but stable condition.
Mr Aaron said the gunman arrived at the restaurant, sat in the car park for four minutes and shot two people with an assault rifle. The gunman then went inside and continued firing.
A 29-year-old male patron inside the restaurant grabbed the rifle from the suspect and tossed it over a counter, Mr Aaron said.
“No doubt he saved many lives by wrestling the gun away and tossing it over the counter and prompting the man to leave,” Mr Aaron said. He called the patron a “hero”. Mr Aaron said Reinking was known to police both in Illinois and in the federal system.
The suspect, wearing only a green jacket, shed the jacket after fleeing the restaurant. Witnesses said he went to an apartment complex in the area where he lived and put on a pair of trousers. He was still on the run last night.