Travis Reinking

Mass Murderer

Travis Reinking and the 2018 Nashville Waffle House Massacre

Background

Travis Jeffrey Reinking was a 29-year-old construction worker from Morton, Illinois, when he carried out a mass shooting at a Waffle House restaurant in Antioch, Tennessee, during the early morning of April 22, 2018. He killed four young people and wounded several others before an unarmed customer, James Shaw Jr., confronted him and took away his rifle. Long before the murders, Reinking had displayed paranoid, delusional and increasingly erratic behavior. Police reports described incidents in which he claimed that people were following or controlling him. He also believed that singer Taylor Swift was communicating with him, stalking him or interfering with his personal affairs. His relatives and others contacted authorities on several occasions because of concerns about his conduct and access to firearms. In July 2017, Reinking entered a restricted area near the White House in Washington, D.C. He reportedly told Secret Service officers that he wanted to meet President Donald Trump and refused repeated instructions to leave. He was arrested for unlawful entry. Following the incident, Illinois authorities revoked his firearm-owner identification card and confiscated several weapons, including the semiautomatic rifle later used in the Waffle House attack. The confiscated weapons were released to Reinking's father, Jeffrey Reinking, after he said that he would secure them and prevent his son from obtaining them. Jeffrey later returned the firearms to Travis. One of those weapons was a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, an AR-15-style semiautomatic firearm that Reinking used to murder four people in Tennessee.

Move to Tennessee and Events Before the Shooting

Reinking moved to the Nashville area during the fall of 2017 and found work in construction and crane operation. His behavior continued to concern people around him. He was dismissed from a job on April 3, 2018, after reportedly claiming that coworkers and other people were pursuing him. On April 18, 2018, four days before the murders, Reinking stole a BMW X6 from a dealership in Brentwood, Tennessee. Police tracked the vehicle through its electronic location system and recovered it near Reinking's apartment complex. Officers entered his apartment and found the vehicle's key, but Reinking was not arrested at that time.

The Waffle House Shooting

At approximately 3:25 a.m. on Sunday, April 22, 2018, Reinking arrived at the Waffle House at 3571 Murfreesboro Pike in the Antioch area of Nashville. The restaurant was open and occupied by employees and late-night customers. Reinking remained in his pickup truck for several minutes before stepping outside with the Bushmaster rifle. Reinking was wearing only a green jacket when he began shooting. He first fired at people outside the restaurant, killing 20-year-old Joe Perez Jr. and 29-year-old Waffle House employee Taurean Sanderlin. He then approached the building and fired through its windows, sending bullets and shattered glass through the crowded dining area. Reinking entered the restaurant and continued firing. Twenty-three-year-old Akilah Dasilva was fatally wounded, while 21-year-old DeEbony Groves was killed inside the building. Other customers suffered gunshot wounds, injuries from flying glass or wounds sustained while attempting to escape. Prosecutors later said that Reinking fired approximately 30 rounds in less than a minute. As the shooting continued, customer James Shaw Jr. hid near the restaurant's restrooms and watched the gunman. When Reinking briefly lowered the rifle, apparently because it had jammed or needed to be reloaded, Shaw rushed toward him. Shaw grabbed the hot barrel, suffering burns to his hand, and fought Reinking for control of the weapon. He pulled the rifle away and threw it behind the restaurant counter. Shaw's intervention stopped Reinking from continuing to shoot the customers and employees trapped inside the restaurant. Reinking fled on foot, leaving his jacket behind and running from the scene without clothing. Shaw, who had also suffered a bullet-graze injury, helped other people escape and later received widespread recognition for preventing additional deaths. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Akilah DaSilva 23 yr old Male

Waffle House shooter found guilty on 4 counts of murder - NPR