A police car sits outside a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tenn on April 22. A man wearing nothing but a coat stormed the restaurant before dawn Sunday and shot several people to death. | Sheila Burke/AP Photo Suspect in Waffle House shooting was arrested near the White House last year

Tennessee authorities said the suspect in a shooting that left four people dead at a Waffle House in Nashville early Sunday morning was arrested last year for being in a restricted area near the White House.

Travis Reinking, a 29-year-old who police have named as the suspect, was arrested by Secret Service officers on July 7, 2017, when he refused to leave the White House grounds. As of Sunday afternoon, he remained at large.


Todd Hudson, special agent in charge, U.S. Secret Service in the Nashville Field Office, told reporters Sunday that to his knowledge Reinking was not armed at the time of the White House incident but was arrested after he refused to leave the area near some bike racks. Hudson stressed that Reinking was only in the White House complex area and did not make it farther into the grounds.

Hudson added that Reinking wanted a meeting with President Donald Trump.

Tennessee and federal authorities said the episode caused the FBI to ask for Illinois authorities in Tazewell County to revoke Reinking's firearm license and to seize his four guns. Among the guns seized at the time, authorities said, was the AR-15 rifle used during Sunday's shooting.

Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said the police department received information that the AR-15 and other guns were released to Reinking's father, who has since acknowledged returning the guns to his son.

"We are presently concerned about evidence of two guns in that apartment that have not been located," Aaron said. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department chief Steve Anderson added one of the guns is more a "hunting-type rifle" and the other is a handgun.

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Anderson warned residents that Reinking remained at large and that police were continuing to sweep the area.

Reading from a prepared statement, Matt Espenshade, an FBI agent located in Nashville, said the bureau received information about the White House incident from the Secret Service in July 2017. FBI agents based in Illinois then worked with the Illinois state police to revoke Reinking's Illinois firearm identification card and then later with the Tazewell County sheriff's office to remove the guns he possessed. The FBI, Espenshade said, closed its assessment on Reinking in October 2017.

Marcus Watson, resident agent in charge at Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said ATF agents traced the AR-15 used during Sunday's shooting and determined that it was legally purchased in Illinois in 2011.

According to police, Reinking arrived at the Waffle House at 3:19 a.m., briefly waited in his truck looking at people inside the restaurant, and then grabbed an AR-15 rifle and started shooting. The first people killed were standing outside the restaurant; the shooter then continued firing inside. A patron inside, James Shaw Jr., ran to the restroom area until the shooting had stopped. Shaw then wrestled the rifle away from Reinking. Police later identified the four victims and said three people died at the scene and a fourth later died at the hospital. Two other people were being treated for gunshot wounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Reinking, who was wearing only a jacket during the shooting, fled the area on foot. Police said that he later returned to his apartment and put on a pair of pants. Witnesses spotted someone matching his description in the wooded area near his apartment.

Nashville Mayor David Briley called Shaw the city's "newest hero." Briley said comprehensive gun reform is needed to "take these weapons of war off the streets of our country."

Shaw stressed to reporters that he considered his actions to be "selfish," but understood that his split decision saved the lives of others in the restaurant. Aaron pointed out that Reinking's jacket, which was recovered near the scene, had two magazines of AR-15 ammunition inside.

"I did save other people, but I don't want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that," Shaw told reporters. "I figured if I was going to die, he was gonna have to work for it."

Addressing Shaw, Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer said: "You don't get to meet too many heroes in life, but you're my hero."

"I talked to some of the people you saved today and they will think of you for the rest of your days, as will I," Ehmer said.

Aaron said Reinking moved to Nashville in the fall of 2017, working the crane and construction trade, but was recently fired from one job. Reinking, Aaron said, started a new job last Monday and has not been seen by his employer since.