Naked man kills customers in café shop; was arrested near White House

Amid the mass shootouts that took place in the American schools, another one can be added to the list. Only this did not take place in a school.

On Sunday, a man burst into a restaurant at 03:25 AM  in the US (01:55 PM Indian time) and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Travis Reinking pulled up to a Waffle House in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville around 3:19 a.m., sat in his pickup truck for about four minutes and then opened fire, the police said.

Naked except for a green jacket, he then fled, and he remained at large as of Sunday night. The police said murder warrants were being drafted.

BREAKING: Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, IL, is person of interest in Waffle House shooting. Vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to him. Gunman last seen walking south on Murfreesboro Pike. He shed is coat and is nude. See Reinking? Pls call 615-862-8600 immediately. pic.twitter.com/duoWCo5fC0

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 22, 2018

Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said at a news conference on Sunday that after leaving the restaurant, Mr. Reinking shed his jacket. In it were two magazines of AR-15 ammunition.

The police credited a customer with averting further bloodshed. The customer, James Shaw Jr., 29, seized the moment when he saw Mr. Reinking apparently trying to reload his rifle. Mr. Shaw burst out from behind a swinging door where he had been hiding, wrested the weapon away and threw it over a countertop.

“I kind of made up my mind because there was no way to lock that door, that if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me,” Mr. Shaw said at the news conference.

Mr. Reinking fled on foot, and apparently returned to his apartment nearby to put on pants. He was last seen shirtless and shoeless, Police Chief Steve Anderson said. Investigators had yet to determine a motive for the killings.

Officials could not fully explain how Mr. Reinking regained possession of his weapons after they were taken away following his episode near the White House last year.

He was arrested last year after entering a restricted area near the White House, Don Aaron said. Travis Reinking wanted to set up a meeting with the president of the United States. That, at least, is what he told officials when they charged him with unlawful entry after he crossed an exterior security barrier near the White House complex in July.

READ ALSO: Three people were killed in a shooting at Waffle House

It is to be noted that Mr. Reinking had surrendered his firearms to his father, who had a firearm owner’s identification card and a legal right to take the weapons. He had assured the officials he would keep the firearms safe from his son.

The police are still clueless about how he got them.

According to a police report, Reinking “was delusional and believed the famous entertainer, Taylor Swift, was harassing him via stalking and hacking his phone.” It added that he said he found Ms. Swift at a Dairy Queen in Morton and chased her before she disappeared.

Mr. Reinking’s family members said he had had these delusions since August 2014. The report noted that “Travis is hostile towards police and does not recognize police authority.”

The gun that was in Reinking possession was an AR-15 assault rifle – a weapon commonly used by mass shooters in the US, where the debate over gun control is fierce and shootings are all-too-frequent.

Investigation on going at the Waffle House. Scene being processed by MNPD experts. This is the rifle used by the gunman. pic.twitter.com/lihhRImHQN

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 22, 2018

AR-15 rifles were used to kill 58 people in Las Vegas last October, while Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz in February opened fire on his former high school with an AR-15 style rifle, killing 17 students and staff members.

In the wake of the Florida massacre, student survivors launched a gun control campaign, drawing hundreds of thousands to demonstrations, and businesses including Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods took measures to restrict access to assault weapons and firearms in general.

However, Congress is sitting on its hands when it comes to the issue.

Meanwhile, an international news agency poll published Friday suggested that support for a ban on assault weapons has risen sharply in the past few months.

62% of those polled said they support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, up from 50% in mid-February and 45% in late 2015.