Waffle House Shooting Suspect Travis Reinking Booked on Four Murder Charges

The suspect in Sunday's fatal shooting at a Nashville Waffle House was booked into the Metro Jail [...]

By Michael Hein

The suspect in Sunday's fatal shooting at a Nashville Waffle House was booked into the Metro Jail on Monday night on four murder warrants.

Travis Reinking, the 29-year-old man arrested for killing four early Sunday morning, was finally caught on Monday afternoon. He was on the run for almost 36 hours, evading police in wooded areas around the Antioch area.

"BREAKING: Quadruple murder suspect Travis Reinking is now being booked into the Metro Jail on the four murder warrants," tweeted the Metro Nashville Police Department's official Twitter account, along with another photo which is apparently Reinking's mug shot.


All four of Reinking's alleged victims were young people of color. He took the lives of 29-year-old Taurea C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva and 21-year-old DeEbony Groves. Groves and Dasilva were college students, while Perez was a local patron and Sanderlin was an employee of the Waffle House.

A Bushmaster AR-15 assault-style rifle was found at the scene of the crime. A heroic patron named James Shaw Jr. says that wrestled the gun from Reinking's hands in the chaos. The gun was traced back to Reinking — one of four firearms he owned. He had his gun collection taken away from him twice, once by his father and once by police.

However, police gave those guns back to Reinking's father, Jeffrey, again, and the elder Reinking promised to keep the guns away from his son.

"The officers did not believe they had any legal authority to withhold the weapons," Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston told CNN on Sunday. "We need to be on solid legal ground in order to seize someone's property."

Following Sunday's shooting, investigators believe that Reinking's father gave the guns back to him, noting that one of them — a Bushmaster AR-15 — was the weapon recovered from the scene of the Waffle House shooting.

Sources close to the investigation say there's a chance that Jeffrey Reinking will face charges as well. According to the Associated Press, Reinking's father Jeffrey Reinking "could potentially" face charges for giving weapons back to his son according to a federal agent source.

Meanwhile, Shaw has set up a GoFundMe page to benefit the other victims of the shooting. The 29-year-old has been lauded for his quick thinking and his humility since the shooting took place.

"I don't really know, when everyone said that (I was a hero), it feels selfish," Shaw told The Tennessean. "I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it."

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