SandyMaloneAntioch, TN – Police have announced the capture of Travis Reinking, who was wanted for the mass shooting in a Waffle House early Sunday morning, The Tennesean reported.
Helicopters were circling over the area while officers saturated nearby neighborhoods, in an effort to contain the 29-year-old shooter prior to his capture.
There were more than 160 officers and numerous tactical teams from various state, local, and federal agencies on the scene assisting in the search of the Antioch area.
“The crime he committed – a quadruple murder – there’s nothing more urgent than that… given his exhibited mental instability, certainly adds another level of urgency. But the urgency was already there,” Don Aaron, a Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
Police still have no motive for Reinking’s rampage.
“We don’t know why he went into the Waffle House. I can tell you we do fully believe that he had so much fire power with him… also the clips in his jacket, that he could have continued real devastation to the persons who survived in the Waffle House,” Aaron said.
Reinking entered a Waffle House in Antioch on Sunday morning and fatally shot four people. He also wounded two others before he was disarmed by a brave customer.
He fled the scene naked and on foot.
Police announced Monday that a citizen had found an empty laptop case with a handwritten identification card for Reinking on the side of the road on Sunday night and notified authorities.
“Our intelligence tells us that Reinking was in that area on Saturday night,” Aaron said earlier Monday.
He said the search of Antioch was done “very carefully by grids.”
Just before Reinking’s capture, Aaron said that he had been in the woods for over 24 hours and would need to come out.
“If Reinking is still in the woods – he’s been there now for more than 24 hours – at some point he’s going to have to come out for food and water… we urge citizens… to also be vigilant,” he said.
Aaron also revealed that investigators had determined that Reinking stole a BMW from a dealership in Williamson County on April 17.
Brentwood police spotted the car and pursued Reinking, but the chase was called off because it was rush hour and dangerous, he explained.
Later that day, police used GPS tracking to find the car in Reinking’s apartment complex parking lot, Aaron said. But at that time, police had no idea it was connected to Reinking.
Police believe Reinking moved to the Antioch area in the fall of 2017, and had a job in the crane or construction trade that he was fired from about three weeks ago, according to Aaron.
He started a new job on Monday, April 16, but didn’t show up for work the next day. Instead, police now know he was busy stealing a BMW that day.
The key fob for the stolen car was recovered in Reinking’s apartment during the investigators’ search on Sunday.
Police also recovered two rifles from Reinking’s apartment.
Aaron said reports of gunfire behind the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on Monday morning were totally unrelated to the search for Reinking.
He also said he had no knowledge of a Taylor Swift connection at this time, despite reports that Reinking had previous told police that Swift had been harassing and stalking him, The Washington Post reported.
Authorities in Illinois said Reinking suffered from that delusion for years.
“From what we know… he shows signs of significant instability,” Aaron said.
In July 2017, the U.S. Secret Service had arrested Reinking for being in a restricted area at the White House.
A Secret Service representative said that he was trying to set up a meeting with the president, according to The Tennessean.
After he was arrested at the White House, authorities had his Illinois firearms authorization revoked, and they seized four firearms.
Nashville Metro PD announced Sunday that the AR-15 that Reinking used in the Waffle House shooting was one of the guns that had been previously seized by authorities.
After the guns were seized from the White House incident, authorities returned the guns to Reinking’s father, and they believe that he then gave all of the guns back to his son.