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Manhunt Underway for Tennessee Shooter Who Killed 4 People of Color

HeadlineApr 23, 2018

In Tennessee, police have launched a manhunt for a killer who opened fire on a Waffle House restaurant in suburban Nashville early Sunday morning, killing four people and wounding four others before being disarmed by a patron and escaping on foot. Police have identified the killer as a 29-year-old white man from Morton, Illinois, named Travis Reinking. All of his victims were young people of color. Reinking reportedly arrived at the Waffle House naked, except for a jacket, armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle. He fled the scene after 29-year-old James Shaw Jr. wrestled Reinking’s assault rifle away from him. Shaw, who was injured in the struggle, has been widely hailed as a hero who prevented the further loss of life. Reinking was arrested in July 2017 by the Secret Service for trespassing on the White House grounds. He would go on to tell investigators he wanted to set up a meeting with President Trump. It was one of several incidents in which Reinking was reported to have displayed delusional thinking. After the White House incident, the FBI seized four of Reinking’s guns—but the weapons were later returned to Reinking’s father, who has acknowledged he then gave the guns back to his son. One of those guns was the AR-15 used in Sunday’s massacre. This is Nashville Mayor David Briley, speaking to reporters on Sunday.

Mayor David Briley: “We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings and homicides. If we can all just come together for this and for the greater good, we can take these weapons of war off the streets of our country.”

The mass shooting came two days after thousands of students at schools across the U.S. walked out of classes for another coordinated day of action against gun violence.

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