Sheriff: Waffle House Shooting Suspect Had Firearms Card Revoked
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Latest on shooting at Tennessee restaurant that left four dead (all times local):
4:15 p.m.
A sheriff in Illinois says Travis Reinking's state firearms card was revoked last year by state police, but his guns were given to his father with the promise that they wouldn't be shared with his son.
Police in Tennessee are searching for the 29-year-old Reinking, saying he's suspected of fatally shooting four people at a Nashville restaurant early Sunday. The Metro Nashville Police Department says arrest warrants charging Reinking with murder have been issued. Police say Reinking was from Morton, Illinois, but moved to Nashville in 2017.
Sheriff Robert Huston in Tazewell County, Illinois, says his department has "no information" on how Reinking got the weapons again. Huston says Reinking's father has a valid firearm ownership card, and his officers didn't believe they had any authority to seize the weapons. He says the father agreed to "keep the weapons secure and out of the possession of Travis."
Phone calls to an Illinois phone number for Jeffrey Reinking, the father of the suspect, went unanswered.
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3:55 p.m.
A Secret Service agent says the suspect in a fatal Tennessee restaurant shooting who was arrested last July outside the White House complex had hoped to talk to President Donald Trump.
Special Agent Todd Hudson in Nashville says Travis Reinking "wanted to set up a meeting with the president."
Hudson says Reinking tried to cross bike racks near the White House grounds that were part of security barriers. Reinking was asked to leave the restricted area, and when he declined, Hudson says he was arrested on a charge of unlawful entry.
Reinking, who is from Morton, Illinois, was subsequently released and was later interviewed by the FBI and authorities in Tazewell County, Illinois.
Police have issued arrest warrants charging the 29-year-old Reinking with multiple counts of criminal homicide in Sunday's shootings at a Nashville Waffle House that killed four people.
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3:30 p.m.
Police have released the names of the four people who died after being shot at a Nashville Waffle House.
In a news release, Metropolitan Nashville Police identified those killed Sunday as 29-year-old restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin of Goodlettsville, 20-year-old restaurant patron Joe R. Perez of Nashville, and 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva of Nashville.
The statement says Sanderlin and Perez were killed outside the restaurant and Dasilva was critically wounded inside and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Deebony Groves, a 21-year-old woman from Gallatin, Tennessee, was fatally wounded inside the restaurant.
Also being treated for gunshot wounds at Vanderbilt are 21-year-old Shanita Waggoner and 24-year-old Sharita Henderson, both of Nashville.
Police spokesman Don Aaron says efforts to locate 29-year-old suspect Travis Reinking are continuing.
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3 p.m.
The man who wrested the gun away from the suspect in Nashville's Waffle House shooting says he had entered the restaurant just two minutes ahead of the gunman.
James Shaw Jr. says he had gone to eat early Sunday after visiting a nightclub. He then heard gunshots, but initially though they were stacks of plates that had fallen over. Shaw says it was then that he saw restaurant workers scatter and a body near the front door as the gunman burst through the entrance.
"He shot through that door; I'm pretty sure he grazed my arm. At that time I made up my mind ... that he was going to have to work to kill me. When the gun jammed or whatever happened, I hit him with the swivel door," Shaw told a news conference Sunday.
The gun then jammed up, and Shaw managed to get one hand on the gun and grab it. He then threw it over the countertop and took the shooter with him out the entrance. Shaw says the shooter then trotted away.
Authorities are hailing Shaw as a hero for preventing further bloodshed at the restaurant.
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2:30 p.m.
Authorities say the suspect in a deadly shooting at a restaurant in Nashville was arrested last year by the U.S. Secret Service for being in a restricted area near the White House.
Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said 29-year-old Travis Reinking's firearms authorization was then revoked at the request of the FBI, and four weapons were seized, including the AR-15 that he allegedly used in the shooting at the Waffle House restaurant early Sunday. Four people were killed.
Aaron says the four guns were returned to the suspect's father, who acknowledged giving them back to his son.
Police have the AR-15 and another gun found during a search earlier Sunday. But two other guns are unaccounted for. Aaron says Reinking is still at large following the 3:25 a.m. shooting and could possibly be armed with the two guns.
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11 a.m.
A U.S. congressman is calling for restricting access to some assault weapons in the wake of a shooting at a restaurant in Tennessee on Sunday that left four people dead.
Rep. Jim Cooper issued a statement Sunday, calling for restricting "widespread civilian access to military-grade assault weapons."
Cooper's statement came in the wake of a shooting at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville. In addition to the four deaths, at least two people were injured.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said via Twitter that authorities are searching for 29-year-old Travis Reinking in connection with the shooting. Authorities had characterized the weapon used in the shooting as an "assault-type" rifle.
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7:30 a.m.
Police in Nashville say three people are dead and four are injured after a shooting at a Waffle House restaurant early Sunday.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department says the gunman was a white man with short hair who was wearing only black pants and a coat. A customer at the restaurant took the gun from the suspect, who then took off his coat and fled the area.
Police said via their Twitter account that authorities are searching for 29-year-old Travis Reinking. They said they named him as a suspect because the car that the gunman arrived in was registered to him.
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This story has been corrects that Aaron said weapon used was an AR15, not AK-15, in first entry.