Armed Gunman Opens fire at Waffle House Leaving 4 Dead

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Yaminah Powell, Editor

An armed gunman opened fire, at a local Waffle House in Antioch Tennessee last week killing four people.

The shooter was identified as 29-year-old Travis Reinking, who moved to Tennessee in 2017. Reinking was charged with four counts of criminal homicide. He also faces four counts of attempted murder and one count of unlawful gun possession in the commission of a violent felony.

Reinking has a history of susceptible behavior, after being arrested  by 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.

Shortly after he was interviewed by the FBI and had completed a program that included taking his weapons from him, but the weapons were given back to Reinkings father who returned them to his son. Of the weapons returned, an AR-15 style rifle was among them, which was used in the shooting.

Immediately following the shooting authorities tweeted out an alert

“Vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to him,” police tweeted according to CBS Los Angeles . “Gunman last seen walking south on Murfreesboro Pike. He shed is coat and is nude. See Reinking? Pls call 615-862-8600 immediately.”

The 4 victims who were killed were all under the age of 30. The 2 people were shot outside of the facility were Waffle House employee Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, and customer Joe R. Perez, 20. Inside the waffle house Reinking shot 2 more people who were identified  as 23-year-old Akilah DaSilva and 21-year-old DeEbony Groves.

The attacker was taken down by James Shaw Jr. who was a customer at the time. Shaw allegedly ambushed Reinking while he was looking at his gun and wrestled him to the floor, taking his gun away.

Shaw doesn’t see himself as a hero, he says he was just looking out for himself.

“I’m a believer that everybody could do what I did,” Shaw told CNN affiliate WSMV-TV.

After the shooting Shaw opened up a GoFundme Account, which has raised over 150,000 for the families of victims, and still is continuing to go up in value.

Following Reinking’s arrest detective Derry Baltimore outlined what police seized from Reinking’s apartment in paperwork filed in court, which included a Remington .30-06 rifle along with countless gun cartridges and accessories

The ongoing investigation will hopefully fill in some gaps and it’s likely Reinking will be serving jail time.