Suspected Waffle House Shooter Believed Taylor Swift Was Stalking Him

Travis Reinking, the man who is suspected to have killed four people after opening fire at a Waffle House near Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, reportedly once believed that singer Taylor Swift was stalking him, CNN reports.

In a May 2016 incident report, an officer said that Reinking “is hostile toward police and does not recognize police authority.” The report also noted that Reinking had access to several firearms.

The report came after Reinking’s parents had called emergency services to report that Reinking believed Swift was stalking him and that he had made comments about killing himself. A responding officer met Reinking and his parents in a drug store parking lot, with a paramedic telling the officer that Reinking was “delusional.”

“Travis believed everyone including his own family and the police are involved,” the officer said in the report. “Travis stated he did not want to hurt Taylor Swift or anyone else, he only wanted the harassment to stop.”

Reinking reportedly believed that Swift was stalking and hacking his phone and that the harassment had begun a few weeks prior when the singer hacked his Netflix account and instructed him to meet her at a Dairy Queen. Reinking told the officer that when he arrived, she ran away and disappeared.

Another officer arrived to try and convince Reinking to go to a hospital for an evaluation but he resisted, eventually agreeing to go after four other officers arrived, though he noted it was “against his will.”

That incident was not Reinking’s only run-in with law enforcement, as he was arrested in July 2017 by the U.S. Secret Service for trespassing and being in a restricted area near the White House. An arrest report states that Reinking told a Secret Service officer he had to get into the White House to speak with the President, CNN reports.

He also reportedly told the officer that he was a “sovereign citizen” and had a right to inspect the grounds. He was detained but refused to leave the area and was then arrested and charged with unlawful entry.

At the time, Reinking lived in Illinois and was interviewed by the FBI after his arrest. After the interview, authorities revoked his firearm authorization and seized four weapons, which they returned to Reinking’s father with a warning not to give them back to his son. On Sunday, Nashville police learned that Jeffrey Reinking acknowledged to returning the firearms to his son.

Photo Credit: Metro Nashville Police Department