Schools in the Nashville area will be put into lockdown if the hunt for a gunman who killed four people in Waffle House is still underway in the morning.
Travis Reinking, 29, shot dead four people and injured several more at the Waffle House in Antioch early Sunday morning before shedding his jacket and fleeing.
Officers have hailed the bravery and quick thinking of a customer, who wrestled the gun away from the suspect, for preventing more loss of life.
Police are being assisted in their hunt for Travis Reinking (pictured) by the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol
Police officers standing by the Waffle House where Reinking shot dead four people early Sunday
More than 80 Nashville police officers continued to search for Reinking early Monday as disturbing reports about the wanted man’s past behavior came to light.
Agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol were also assisting in the manhunt as disturbing reports about the wanted man’s past behavior came to light.
Students will free to move throughout school building as usual during a lockdown but no guests or visitors are allowed to enter the building.
Schools within the Antioch and Cane Ridge search area have been checked and cleared by Metro police and Metro Nashville School Security, according to the district.
Reinking was also added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.
Restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, and 20-year-old customer Joe R. Perez were among the four shot dead by a gunman at a Nashville Waffle House on Sunday
Deebony Groves, 21, and Akilah Dasilva, 23, were also killed when the gunman stormed in and opened fire with an assault rifle
He was nearly naked, wearing only a green jacket and brandishing an assault-style rifle when he opened fire in the parking lot and then stormed the restaurant, police say.
Authorities seized weapons from Reinking following an incident at the White House in July last year when he was arrested by the Secret Service for crossing an exterior security barrier and charged with unlawful entry.
Prior to the White House incident, police reports have previously described Reinking as ‘delusional’ and talked about his ‘mental health issues’.
In May 2016, deputies from Tazewell County, Illinois, were called to a CVS parking lot where Reinking told officers that Taylor Swift was stalking him and hacking his phone, and that his family was also involved, according to a report released Sunday.
In addition to the four people killed, four others were injured. Police credit quick-thinking customer James Shaw, who wrestled the gun away from the suspect, for preventing more loss of life.
James Shaw, a 29-year-old wireless technician for AT&T, has been hailed for wrestling the gun away from Reinking and preventing more loss of life
Authorities identified those killed in the shooting as 29-year-old restaurant worker Taurean C. Sanderlin of Goodlettsville, 20-year-old restaurant patron Joe R. Perez of Nashville, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva of Nashville and Deebony Groves, a 21-year-old woman from Gallatin, Tennessee.
Sanderlin and Perez were killed outside the restaurant and Dasilva was critically wounded inside and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Groves was shot dead inside the restaurant.
Dasilva was from Antioch was a rap artist and music video producer who had such skills behind the camera that he was a favorite among many of Music City’s independent musicians and recording labels, The Tennessean reported.
‘Music is my life and I will never stop until I achieve my dreams,’ Dasilva said on his Twitter account.
Dasilva’s mother told CBS News that her son was a student at Middle Tennessee State University and aspired to be a music engineer.
He was at the restaurant with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Tia Waggoner, the paper reported.
Also wounded was James Shaw who police said suffered minor wounds from wrestling the gun away Reinking.
Shaw, who is a Nashville native who works as a wireless technician for AT&T, said he was no hero – despite being hailed as one by Nashville Mayor David Briley.
He said he pounced on the suspect after making up his mind that ‘he was going to have to work to kill me.’
‘I did that completely out of a selfish act. I was completely doing it just to save myself,’ the 29-year-old told reporters on Sunday.
‘I don’t want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that I figured if I was going to die, he was going to have to work for it.’
Metro Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Shaw ‘decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled’.
Chuck Cordero saw everything unfold from outside the Waffle House’s famously wide windows and CNN affiliate WSMV as he ran away ‘I looked back and there was a gentleman wrestling with the gunman’
‘He was a hero – had that guy had a chance to reload his weapon, there was plenty more people in that restaurant.’