Four shot dead at Tenn. restaurant
Secret Service arrested suspect in July near White House
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A nearly naked gunman wearing only a green jacket and brandishing an assault rifle early Sunday stormed a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, shooting four people to death before a customer rushed him and wrestled the weapon away.
Authorities were searching for the 29-year-old suspect, Travis Reinking, who they said drove to the busy restaurant and killed two people in the parking lot before entering and continuing to fire. When either his AR-15 rifle jammed or the clip was empty, a customer disarmed him in a scuffle.
Four people were also wounded before the gunman fled, throwing off his jacket.
Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said there was no clear motive, though Reinking might have “mental issues.” He might still be armed, Anderson said at a mid-afternoon news conference, because he was known to have owned a handgun that authorities have not recovered.
U.S. Secret Service agents arrested Reinking in July for being in a restricted area near the White House, officials said. Special Agent Todd Hudson said Reinking was detained after refusing to leave the restricted area, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump.
State police in Illinois, where Reinking lived until last fall, subsequently revoked his state firearms card at the request of the FBI, and four guns were then taken from him, including the AR-15 used in Sunday’s shooting as well as a handgun, authorities said.
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’ past encounters with Reinking, “there’s certainly evidence that there’s some sort of mental health issues involved.”
While Huston said it was unclear how Reinking reclaimed the guns, Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said that his father “has now acknowledged giving them back to his son.”
Phone calls to a number listed for the father, Jeffrey Reinking, went unanswered.
Meanwhile, authorities hailed the customer who intervened to stop more bloodshed, 29-year-old James Shaw Jr., as a hero. The father of a 4-year-old girl demurred and said he was just trying to survive.
They cursed at each other as they scuffled, Shaw said, and he grabbed the gun and tossed it over a counter. The gunman then fled.
The dead were identified as 29-yearold restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin, and restaurant patrons Joe R. Perez, 20, Akilah Dasilva, 23, and Deebony Groves, 21. A police statement said Sanderlin and Perez were killed outside the restaurant, Groves was fatally shot inside, and Dasilva was critically wounded inside and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.