Travis Reinking, the suspect in the shooting of a Nashville Waffle house shooting, was finally captured by the Nashville Police Department on Monday afternoon.
There’s no word yet as to how many charges Reinking potentially faces for the shooting that resulted in the death of four people, but he might not be the only one in legal trouble. 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.
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The 29-year-old owned at least four firearms before being taken into custody, one of which includes an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle used in the Waffle House shooting, and according to multiple sources he had his firearms taken away from him twice before Sunday morning’s massacre.
The first time Jeffrey personally took his guns, after an incident took place near Reinking’s home in Tremont, Illinois in June 2017. An incident occurred during that time where Reinking was spotted carrying a rifle and wearing a pink dress as he left the family’s house, eventually ending up being confronted at a public pool where he broke in and began swimming around in his underwear. No charges came from the incident, even after Reinking reportedly began shouting at the lifeguards and exposing his genitals.
Jeffrey claimed he had already taken Reinking’s gun collection away by that point.
“I called back Jeff Reinking and advised him of what happened and when he gets back home he might want to lock the guns back up until Travis gets mental help, which he stated he would,” reads the police report.
The second incident took place in July 2017, where Reinking breached the security barrier at the White House without permission and demanded the secret service take him to meet President Donald Trump.
Following his arrest, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office seized four guns, ammunition and Reinking’s firearm owner’s ID. But the guns were eventually given back to Jeffrey, who reportedly promised to keep them away from his son.
“The officers did not believe they had any legal authority to withhold the weapons,” Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said on Sunday. “We need to be on solid legal ground in order to seize someone’s property.”
The shooting took place around 3:25 a.m. on Sunday morning, with Reinking reportedly firing his rifle from the parking lot into the restaurant. Reinking was tackled by James Shaw Jr. before he could continue firing, wrenching the gun out of Reinking’s hands as a bullet grazed his elbow.
