Travis Reinking, Tennessee Waffle House Shooting Accused, Earlier Arrested Outside White House

On Sunday night, authorities were still searching for a 29-year-old suspect accused of carrying out a fatal shooting Sunday morning at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee. Police officials issued a murder warrant for the suspect late Sunday evening, identifying him as Travis Reinking from Morton, Illinois.

There wasn’t a lot of information shared by the police as yet, but Reinking’s family home was reportedly surrounded by FBI agents in order to arrest him. Tazewell County, Illinois authorities said their last interaction with the suspect was in May 2016 when Emergency Medical Services were called to a CVS parking lot where Reinking threatened to kill himself.

According to a report in Dayton Daily News, a daily newspaper from Dayton, Ohio, Reinking’s family said he was having delusions regarding singer/songwriter, Taylor Swift. He believed Swift was stalking and harassing him and that his parents and police were also involved in it, his family said.

Some reports since the shooting claimed that a few months before Sunday's incident at the Waffle House, Reinking was arrested by authorities and his guns seized outside the White House grounds on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 7, 2017. Officials with the Secret Service said at the time that Reinking approached an agent and said that he had to get into the White House in order to speak to the president. When officials asked him to leave, Reinking reportedly tried walking past the security barrier saying, “Do what you need to do. Arrest me if you have to."

At the time, Washington D.C.’s Superior Court had ordered him to do 32 hours of community service and had also asked him to stay away from the White House.

Reports stated that after that run-in, FBI coordinated with the Illinois State Police and Tazewell County authorities to revoke his gun license. Reinking voluntarily gave up four of his weapons to the authorities. As Reinking had a license and a permit for the gun, FBI officials turned over his weapons to his father because he had a right to legally possess them under Illinois law.

"He was allowed to do that after he assured deputies he would keep them secure and away from Travis," Tazewell County Sheriff Robert M. Huston said, referring to Reinking's father.

At the time, the weapons that were confiscated by the authorities included a Bushmaster AR-15 which was apparently used during the Sunday shooting.

"Among the weapons seized by those authorities was the AR-15 rifle used at the Waffle House today," said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron on Sunday.

The Reinking family owns a crane rental business in Illinois and according to the neighbors, who had not seen the suspect in months, he was brought up in a "really good Christian home."

Police had reportedly surrounded his apartment complex, his current address, in Antioch, Tennessee on Sunday. SWAT team members went door-to-door at the Discovery Mountain View Apartments inquiring about the suspect and his whereabouts, to which residents said they never saw Reinking but had heard him playing loud music several times.

While some residents of the building were reportedly asked to stay inside the building, the rest were asked to evacuate.

The shooting at the Waffle House on Sunday killed four people and left several injured. Among the victims was 29-year-old Taurean C. Sanderlin of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a restaurant employee who was fatally shot while standing outside. The others killed were customers, Joe R. Perez, 20, of Nashville, Deebony Groves, 21, of Gallatin, Tennessee, and Akilah Dasilva, 23, of Antioch.

On Sunday, Reinking was also added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's "Most Wanted" list.