A Tennessee sheriff says the suspect in the slayings of four people at a Nashville Waffle House is cooperating with authorities and being evaluated for physical and mental health.
The Latest on a shooting at Tennessee restaurant that left four dead (all times local):
2:55 p.m.
A Tennessee sheriff says the suspect in the slayings of four people at a Nashville Waffle House is cooperating with authorities and being evaluated for physical and mental health.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said 29-year-old Travis Reinking has been “compliant” and “cooperative” since he was transferred to the jail late Monday after he was captured near the apartment where he lived. Reinking is wearing a vest known informally as a “suicide smock” and will remain under close observation at a maximum-security facility in Nashville.
Hall said the prevalence of mental illness and the availability of guns in the community are a dangerous mix and “if we don’t do something about it, shame on us — all of us.”
Reinking has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. Police say he killed four people with an assault-style rifle at the Waffle House and escaped on foot, setting off an all-out manhunt that lasted more than 24 hours.
Reinking is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.
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2:40 p.m.
The suspect in Sunday’s killings at a Tennessee Waffle House once lived in Colorado, where police say a co-worker described him as being paranoid and delusional at times. The co-worker also told a detective the man was infatuated with Taylor Swift and claimed to be a sovereign citizen.
Detective Sgt. Rob Martellaro of the Salida Police Department said in a report Monday that Travis Reinking lived in Salida, Colorado, for several months in 2016 and 2017 and worked at a company called Rocky Mountain Crane.
One of Reinking’s former co-workers told Martellaro on Monday that Reinking had identified himself as an anti-government “sovereign citizen” who also disliked the National Rifle Association. The FBI says sovereign citizens believe they are separate from the U. S. and don’t have to answer to any government authority, including courts and law enforcement.
Martellaro said the former co-worker left him with the impression that Reinking’s interest in the sovereign citizen movement was part of his “delusional makeup.”
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12:10 p.m.
In a brief address that drew a standing ovation, the man who snatched an AR-15 rifle away from a gunman at a Tennessee restaurant has told state lawmakers he faced “the true test of a man.”
As the Republican-led House honored him Tuesday, James Shaw Jr. said he acted early Sunday at a Nashville Waffle House to save his life, and saved others in the process. He said he never thought he’d be in a room with all eyes on him.
Shaw Jr. has said he made a split-second decision to challenge the suspect. He got the gun away and threw it over a counter.
His father, James Shaw Sr., and longtime friend Brennan McMurray also briefly spoke Tuesday.
Travis Reinking is charged with four counts of criminal homicide in the shooting.
The Senate will also honor Shaw Jr. Tuesday afternoon.
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10:50 a.m.
A Nashville judge has revoked the bond of a man accused of killing four people at a Waffle House restaurant.
Court records show that a judge struck the $2 million bond for Travis Reinking until a hearing can be held Wednesday. The records did not give a reason why General Sessions Judge Michael Mondelli revoked the bond.
Reinking has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide. Police say the 29-year-old man opened fire outside the restaurant with an AR-15 rifle and then stormed the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four other people were injured in the shooting.
An attorney listed as Reinking’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
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12:01 a.m.
Police say Travis Reinking had stolen a BMW from a Nashville area car dealer last week. They discovered it outside the apartment where he lived and hauled it away. But they didn’t figure out who had stolen the car until after tragedy struck.
By then, police say, the 29-year-old with a troubled past had shot four people to death in a Waffle House not far from where he lived. If not for the efforts of a customer who wrestled the gun away, many more would have died.
His arrest ended a manhunt that involved more than 160 law enforcement officers. But it left troubling questions about his behavior before the shooting unanswered.
Those questions included what might have led him to the carnage he is said to have unleashed at the Waffle House.
