U.S. Authorities Capture Tennessee Shooting Suspect

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Police in the U.S. state of Tennessee on Monday captured the man suspected of gunning down four people at a restaurant in Nashville, America's country music capital. 

Travis Reinking -- who exhibited "mental instability" and was arrested last year for trying to enter the White House grounds -- was captured by police after a more than 24-hour  manhunt that brought few leads until his sudden capture. 

Police posted news of the arrest and photos of Reinking in the back of a police car, looking dishevelled and wearing a ripped shirt and jeans. 

"Travis Reinking apprehended moments ago in a wooded area," Nashville police tweeted.

The manhunt had concentrated in and around that wooded area in the neighborhood of Antioch, near the location of the Waffle House restaurant and the suspect's apartment home. 

The 29-year-old is accused of opening fire at the restaurant in the early morning hours of Sunday while wearing nothing but a jacket.

He allegedly killed four people and wounded two others, before being stopped by James Shaw, 29, a restaurant patron hailed as a hero for wrestling away the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Reinking then shed his jacket, went back to his nearby apartment home, put on clothes and fled, according to police.

- Gunman's past -

A picture emerged of the accused gunman as someone who suffered from mental health problems for months and may have held anti-government views, but who was able to thwart law enforcement efforts to restrict his access to guns. 

"We have a man who has exhibited significant instability," Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference prior to the arrest.

Reinking was arrested at the White House in July 2017, when he entered a restricted area of the presidential grounds, according to police. 

He had demanded to see Donald Trump and had declared himself a "sovereign citizen," a designation used by anti-government extremists, according to The Tennessean newspaper.

After the White House incident, police rescinded Reinking's firearms authorization in the Midwestern state of Illinois, where he lived at the time. 

They seized his four weapons, including the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the Tennessee shooting, and handed them to his father, who later returned them to his son, according to police.

Reinking recently had been fired from a job at a construction crane company for exhibiting signs of paranoia, according to The Tennessean. 

Family members had reported Reinking's mental health challenges to police, including his belief that singer Taylor Swift was stalking him, The New York Times reported.

Aaron confirmed that Reinking "exhibited mental instability over many months," but said investigators did not have a motive for the attack.  

The pre-dawn shooting claimed the lives of four people and wounded two others. 

Authorities confirmed that Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, and DeEbony Groves, 21, were killed at the restaurant.

The fourth victim, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva, died at a hospital.

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