The suspected gunman in the Waffle House shooting that resulted in the death of four people and injury of four others outside Nashville, Tennessee, was taken into custody on Monday afternoon after being on the run since early Sunday morning.
Metropolitan Nashville Police announced suspect Travis Reinking was apprehended–fully clothed after reported to have been naked except for a jacket while leaving the Waffle House–in a wooded area not far from his apartment complex, according to the Associated Press.
Reinking, described as a white man with brown hair, opened fire with an AR-15 in the Waffle House parking lot and then stormed the restaurant shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, police say. Four people were killed and four others were injured before a quick-thinking customer wrestled the assault weapon away, preventing more bloodshed. Reinking then disappeared, police said.
Police say about 20 people were in the Waffle House at the time of the shootings. They included people of different races and ethnicities, but the four people killed were minorities_three black and one Hispanic.
It’s not clear why Reinking opened fire on restaurant patrons, though he may have "mental issues," Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said earlier. He was considered armed and dangerous, because he was known to have owned a handgun authorities have not recovered.
Dozens of agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol participated in search efforts to capture Reinking. More than 100 Nashville police officers were also involved with the search efforts, going door-to-door to ask residents if they had seen the suspect.
Reinking has a troubled history that includes multiple red flags of having paranoid delusions. During an incident last year, he crossed into a restricted area near the White House and refused to leave, saying he wanted to meet President Donald Trump. While he did not have any guns on him during the White House incident, the FBI requested Illinois state police revoke his state firearms card and seize his four guns.
The AR-15 used in the shooting was one of the firearms that was seized and then given back to him by his father, according to Police spokesman Don Aaron.