Waffle House shooting leaves 4 dead in Tennessee

**LAGC** · 04-22-2018, 07:16 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Four people were killed and several others were injured in a shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee early Sunday, authorities said. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the suspect as 29-year-old Travis Reinking of Morton, Illinois, who was still at large Sunday afternoon.

Reinking arrived at the Waffle House parking lot in Antioch around 3 a.m. local time. He exited his truck and began firing an AR-15 at two people outside the restaurant, Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said. He then went inside the restaurant and opened fire.

Authorities discovered two magazines of AR-15 ammunition in a green jacket Reinking left behind. "He clearly came armed with a lot of firepower to devastate the south Nashville area," Aaron said.

"There is a chance that Reinking is at large with two other weapons," he added. Police said they were not aware any motives for the shooting.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/waffle-...es-2018-04-22/

**LAGC** · 04-22-2018, 07:19 PM

The 29-year-old Illinois man accused of carrying out a fatal shooting Sunday morning at an Antioch Waffle House previously had weapons removed from his possession after a 2017 arrest near the White House.

Newly obtained Illinois police records also show the suspected shooter thought he was being stalked by Taylor Swift and had previously threatened people with an AR-15 rifle.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ect/540144002/

Paranoid schizophrenia....

"We suspect some mental issues but at this time there's no notes, no verbal explanations so we don't have a motive at this time," Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said in a news conference Sunday.

**LAGC** · 04-22-2018, 07:37 PM

Hero customer rushes Waffle House killer and rips away his assault-style rifle

As soon as gunshots tore through a Waffle House, James Shaw Jr. bolted and hid in a restroom.

But he kept an eye and an ear out for the gunman. And the moment the shooter paused, Shaw decided to ambush him.

That heroic act by a customer saved countless lives at a Nashville-area Waffle House, where a seminude gunman killed four people early Sunday morning.

Shaw "saw the gunman looking at his rifle. At that point, the shots had stopped," Metro Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said.

"So he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled."

Shaw was grazed by a bullet on his elbow while grappling with the gunman.

He also burned his right hand grabbing the barrel of the weapon, which police called an "assault-type rifle."

Shaw "is the hero here, and no doubt he saved many lives by wrestling the gun away and then tossing it over the counter and prompting the (gun)man to leave," the police spokesman said.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/22/us/wa...see/index.html

**LAGC** · 04-22-2018, 07:47 PM

"There have been reports of a nude man walking..."

**l921428x** · 04-22-2018, 11:26 PM

hate crime...

**recon** · 04-22-2018, 11:28 PM

Well this figures! He was at the white house in 2017 doing the same shit! It's time to open the mental hospitals again.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/22...olice-say.html

**LAGC** · 04-23-2018, 04:29 AM

Shooter was coo-coo for Coco Puffs.

Apparently after his little White House stunt last year, police tried to take his guns away, but his dad intervened and offered to safe-keep them instead.

Police allowed dad to keep the guns under condition he not allow his son access.

Apparently dad relented though, and gave his son back his guns. Hope he doesn't get charged as an accessory for this...

**Richard Simmons** · 04-23-2018, 04:31 AM

So they seized his firearms then give them to his father who gives them back to the whack job son.

**LAGC** · 04-23-2018, 04:32 AM

Yup.

Jeff Reinking, Travis Reinking’s Father: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/jeff-...r-dad-jeffrey/

**Krupski** · 04-23-2018, 05:22 AM

Originally Posted by LAGC

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/waffle-...es-2018-04-22/

But...but..but....HOW????? The restaurant had a "no guns allowed" sign! https://www.concealedcarry.com/law/b...o-gun-policies scroll about 1/4 of the way down.

**Richard Simmons** · 04-23-2018, 08:39 AM

As whacky as this guy seems to be I'm amazed they haven't found him yet. They said on the news this morning they had a patrol car at every intersection within a mile of the Waffle House. Do they think he's hiding nearby? Thought I read that he did the shooting wearing a jacket with no shirt or pants but they know he went home and put on some pants.

Wonder what dad's thought process was regarding giving him the guns back?

**l921428x** · 04-23-2018, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by Krupski

But...but..but....HOW????? The restaurant had a "no guns allowed" sign! https://www.concealedcarry.com/law/b...o-gun-policies scroll about 1/4 of the way down.

My Waffle House has a similar sign and if you walk in with a sidearm they do
not even look at you funny.

They know they are in danger anytime after 10 at night.

**imanaknut** · 04-23-2018, 12:06 PM

As I keep saying, if these no guns allowed signs don't work, just make murder illegal. That would solve everything.

**Gunreference1** · 04-23-2018, 01:40 PM

Police: Waffle House shooting suspect in custody

http://www.azfamily.com/story/380203...ect-in-custody

Steve

**alismith** · 04-23-2018, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by LAGC

Shooter was coo-coo for Coco Puffs.

Apparently after his little White House stunt last year, police tried to take his guns away, but his dad intervened and offered to safe-keep them instead.

Police allowed dad to keep the guns under condition he not allow his son access.

Apparently dad relented though, and gave his son back his guns. Hope he doesn't get charged as an accessory for this...

I hope he does. He was told by the police NOT to give them back to his son, but he did. No matter what he was thinking at the time, he knew his son was a whack job, yet still gave him the guns.

He deserves everything he might get.

**l921428x** · 04-23-2018, 01:48 PM

Yeah I agree with ali on this. The father needs to be hammered. If you are a bartender and you serve someone that is drunk.
Try to stay out of that.

**LAGC** · 04-23-2018, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Richard Simmons

Wonder what dad's thought process was regarding giving him the guns back?

The thing with schizophrenia (and it really does sound like this kid is suffering from it, as with several of these other recent mass shooters) is that the symptoms can ebb and flow.

Schizophrenics can act all paranoid and erratic one day, then be almost seemingly back to normal the next.

I'm assuming he was able to hide his symptoms long enough for his dad to think he was over it. Or maybe he was taking medications long enough to convince dad he was okay, then he went off of them?

The thing to keep in mind is that most schizophrenics (just like most mentally ill people) are completely harmless and non-violent. They are only a threat to themselves if anything. They might not show any signs of violence at all, until one day a small minority of them snap.

It's estimated that as many as 1% of the entire population is suffering from schizophrenia at any one time. If they were ALL a danger to society, we'd be seeing a hell of a lot more violent rampages than the relatively few we are seeing now.

The problem is, there's just no easy way to tell which few of these schizophrenics are going to snap at any given time. So what do we do? Lock them all up just in case? Even though the vast majority are non-violent?

It's a conundrum, no doubt. At the end of the day we have to balance people's civil rights versus whatever potential danger they may present.

I think if anyone had a crystal ball and could accurately predict who is going to do what, like in the movie Minority Report or something, we'd have solved this problem by now.

**alismith** · 04-23-2018, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by LAGC

The thing to keep in mind is that most schizophrenics (just like most mentally ill people) are completely harmless and non-violent. They are only a threat to themselves if anything. They might not show any signs of violence at all, until one day a small minority of them snap.

Schizophrenia IS a mental illness.

You might be able to treat the symptoms, but the mental illness will always be there. AFAIK, there is no cure for it....only treatments for the symptoms.

Even though his symptoms might have abated for a while, and he might have acted "normal" for his dad, his dad is still responsible for giving THOSE guns back to him.