Waffle House in Tennessee Scene of Fatal Shooting *Updated*
Reportedly 4 people are dead, with several other people wounded after an early morning shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee. Initial reports are the shooter was armed with a rifle, a jacket, and not much else…
BREAKING: 3 persons fatally shot & 4 others wounded at the Waffle House, 3571 Murfreesboro Pike. Gunman opened fire @ 3:25 a.m. A patron wrestled away the gunman’s rifle. He was nude & fled on foot. He is a white man with short hair. pic.twitter.com/d1qxRxsGNx
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 22, 2018
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified a “person of interest” in the shooting as Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, Illinois.
“Vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to him,” police tweeted. “Gunman last seen walking south on Murfreesboro Pike. He shed is coat and is nude. See Reinking? Pls call 615-862-8600 immediately.”
Clearly a developing story, but the ongoing focus on mass shootings, gun control/rights, and one would assume some aspect of mental health, are clearly going to remain topics of discussion.
From Newschannel5 Nashville:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkSxuD1yG0Q&w=560&h=315]
***UPDATE***
From CNN:
Reinking is from Morton, Illinois. He moved to the Tennessee in 2017.
According to police, Reinking was once arrested by the Secret Service for trespassing near the White House. He was charged with unlawful entry, an arrest report states, but had his charges dismissed after completing community service.
The FBI interviewed Reinking shortly after he completed the program and seized his guns. Authorities in Tazewell County, Illinois, later returned the seized weapons to Reinking’s father, who gave them back to his son, police said. One of those guns was the same AR-15-style rifle used in Sunday’s attack.
And the hero who stopped him? James Shaw:
The man who wrestled the gun away from Reinking and prevented him from killing more people doesn’t want to be called a hero.
James Shaw Jr. said he ambushed and wrestled Reinking to save himself.
“I’m a believer that everybody could do what I did,” Shaw told CNN affiliate WSMV-TV.
The naked truth is that this is going to expose us all to the mental health question much more fully.Report
I’m slightly disappointed you didn’t lead off with “naked aggression”. Seriously though, clearly we are going to get a mental health angle here, especially if his reported criminal history turns out to be accurate.Report
Don’t worry, once the puns and wordplay get going…Report
No doubt. It will be interesting to see how this is covered by media and followed by populace. Parkland obviously was a huge story but the YouTube shooting fell off the face of the Earth almost immediately once shooter became known. See which was this one goes.Report
Seems more like a Naked Gun thing.Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZJUuDLqjzU
For them amongst us who ain’t old.Report
I completely forgot about Fred Ward being in that. Outstanding. The ending with OJ Simpson and the baby is a classic that is just surreal in retrospect. Well Done.Report
We’ve got lots of lawyers here — is the father at risk of being charged with accessory to murder?Report
There is some degree of responsibility there. Whether or not it is criminal, I have no idea, but it could be an interesting civil question.Report
I’ve been looking but cant find specifics: LE turned the weapon over to father, who gave it back to son, reportedly. I’d like to know what conditions it was returned to the father on, probably goes a long way toward liability. Criminal and Civil liability will be two different things, of course.Report
A source I read said the guy had his ability to own firearms revoked (or some such language) which I take to mean he would not have been able to pass a background check. It also appears the father was present when the weapons were seized (apparently he was living at his father’s home) so presumably the father would have been aware of that fact.
So, yeah, if he isn’t charged as an accessory at least expect a civil suit. He deserves some misery.Report
Passing a firearm to a prohibited person, whether you know they’re prohibited or not, is a felony. It’s not always pursued, but in a case like this, if he was prohibited, I’d be surprised if charges are not filed.Report
It sounds like the seizure involved a state law in which a therapist is required to report to local law enforcement (a) someone who is a danger to themselves or others, (b) whom it is discovered owns guns (no duty to ask), at which point, local law enforcement (c) has the discretion to seize the guns and revoke the FOID card. There is some sort of post-deprivation hearing rights.
None of that means that the person has received any particular mental health diagnoses or that the person is deemed to be a particular risk to shoot anybody. For example, a client seeing a therapist is a cutter, who reveals he owns guns. That the therapist doesn’t believe that guns hold any particular risk doesn’t matter. That is the one such situation I’ve heard about, and indeed when law enforcement came, they suggested the guns be re-registered in the spouse’s name so that she can come pick them up. I don’t think the state has the right to keep the guns; no crime or other wrong has been committed; so they are going to hold the guns until either the individual regains the right to have them or they are transferred. Also, worth considering that the therapist is pretty much done once the report is made, so what the spouse is likely to know about the circumstances of the seizure are going to come from the husband.Report
Hmm… Thanks for the info. Per usual the initial reports are incomplete and/or wrong in some respect. The report I read seemed to imply that the seizure was a consequence of the incident and arrest near the White House and that Federal LEO was involved. Always good to wait for the real info to shake out.Report
Yeah, I didn’t mean to state that was necessarily the reason for the revocation; it just seemed to me that was the most likely. I think all of the grounds for revocation tie into some other legal process like a conviction, involuntary commitment, dishonorable discharge, an order of protection, etc. If it’s unclear why the action was taken, the grounds I outlined (*) are more probable because there would not necessarily be any process unless post-deprivation hearing was sought.Report
Probably shouldn’t do this, but the White House incident doesn’t appear to have resulted in a conviction or mental health screening. He did community service and the charges were dropped. I don’t think this alone would be enough.
The Peoria area papers say that there are no court records against him other than auto-related incidents. Police are saying that they’d had run-ins with him, but no charges were ever brought, though in one instance they got him to seek a mental health evaluation, so I suppose charges might have been threatened. But that wouldn’t be an involuntary admission. Still seems to be pointing to a discussion with a therapist where magic words were spoken, falling short of what would be needed for commitment.Report