Judge revokes bond for Nashville shooting suspect after outcry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - After a public outcry, a Tennessee judge revoked a $2 million bond on Tuesday set for the man accused of fatally shooting four people at a Waffle House restaurant, while police tried to discern a motive for the attack.
Travis Reinking, the suspect in a Waffle House shooting in Nashville, is under arrest by Metro Nashville Police Department in a wooded area in Antioch, Tennessee, U.S., April 23, 2018. Courtesy Metro Nashville Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
The Nashville district attorney’s office was “inundated with calls” on Tuesday morning from angry members of the public saying there should be no possibility of the suspect, Travis Reinking, being released from jail, spokesman Steve Hayslip said.
“The fact that he might be able to bond out set that fear and panic back in their hearts again,” Hayslip said.
Reinking, a 29-year-old construction worker with a history of erratic brushes with law enforcement, was captured in woods on Monday after more than a day on the run. The original bond had been set by a night court magistrate, Hayslip said.
Police say a nearly naked Reinking opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, then fled the scene. The gunman, who began shooting outside the restaurant and then moved inside, aborted his attack and fled when a customer, 29-year-old James Shaw Jr., wrestled the rifle from him in what authorities called an act of heroism.
“We don’t know why he went into the Waffle House,” Metropolitan Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters on Monday.
Reinking, who police said had a pistol and ammunition in a backpack when he was arrested, was not talking to police.
Reinking moved to the Tennessee capital last year from his Illinois hometown. His case will be discussed in court on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear whether Reinking would attend, the district attorney’s office said.
Jon King, a public defender representing Reinking, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges Reinking is facing.
The Nashville killings were the latest in a string of mass shootings around the country in which a gunman used an AR-15-style rifle. One of the deadliest was the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 by a gunman brandishing an AR-15. A former student at the school is charged with the murders.
In Nashville, authorities said they are still unclear about what motivated the Waffle House attack, which sent a shudder through the city, one of the biggest in the U.S. South.
Tips from people in the neighborhood helped lead police to search through woods about two miles (3 km) from the restaurant, where Reinking eventually surrendered without resisting.
Reinking, who has had a history of bizarre behavior, delusions and multiple encounters with authorities, was arrested in July 2017 for attempting to get into the White House, according to police records.
After that episode, authorities in Illinois revoked his gun license and confiscated four firearms, including what police said was the rifle used in the Waffle House shooting. The guns were given to his father, Jeffrey Reinking, who told police he would lock them up and keep them away from his son. But Jeffrey Reinking, from Tazewell County, Illinois, 130 miles southwest of Chicago, eventually returned the weapons to his son, Nashville police said on Sunday.
Marcus Watson, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Reinking’s father could face federal charges if he knowingly transferred weapons to a person who was prohibited from owning them. Jeffrey Reinking was not immediately available for comment.