Travis Reinking, the man suspected of killing four people at a Nashville-area Waffle House on Sunday, is now in custody, Metro Nashville police said.
Reinking arrived at the Waffle House in Antioch, part of the metro Nashville area, just before 3:20 a.m. Sunday.
He sat in his pickup truck for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes “just looking at people inside the restaurant,” Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said.
Then, wearing only a green jacket, the killer got out with an “assault-type rifle” and fatally shot two people outside the Waffle House, police said.
He continued his rampage inside the restaurant, killing another two people. His motive remains unclear.
The carnage stopped only because of the heroics of a customer, James Shaw Jr., who monitored the gunman’s moves from afar and jumped into action when he saw an opportunity.
Shaw “saw the gunman looking at his rifle. At that point, the shots had stopped. So he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled,” Aaron said.
Shaw denied that he was a hero, saying his actions were “a selfish act” to save himself.
Shaw has started a GoFundMe account to assist victims of the shooting, a GoFundMe spokeswoman told CNN. Within hours, the $15,000 goal had almost been met.
Reinking fled the scene of the shooting completely naked, police said. They suspect he went to his apartment, put on a pair of pants and may have escaped into the woods.
“A man believed to be Travis Reinking was last seen in a wood line near Discovery at Mountain View Apts. on Mountain Springs Drive near the Waffle House,” police tweeted. “The man was seen wearing black pants and no shirt.”
A police helicopter and police dogs tried to track the suspect, but they’ve been hampered by rain.
