Father Of Waffle House Shooter Travis Reinking Charged With Supplying Son With AR-15 Used To Kill Four People

CHICAGO (CBS)--The father of a man accused of killing four people in a mass shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville last year has been accused of supplying the firearm to his son, Travis Reinking.

The Tazewell State's Attorney's Office said Jeffrey Reinking knowingly supplied his son with the Bushmaster AR-15 he used in the April 2018 shooting.  Authorities say Travis Reinking was nearly naked, wearing only a green jacket, when he opened fire outside the restaurant.

Police have said a quick-thinking restaurant patron wrestled the rifle away from Reinking, likely preventing more deaths.

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Travis Reinking, from Morton, Illinois, was indicted last month on 17 charges that include first-degree murder.

His father, Jeffrey L. Reinking, was charged March 14 with unlawful delivery of a firearm, a Class 4 Felony.

Prosecutors allege that in November 2017, Jeffrey Reinking gave his son the semi-automatic assault rifle he used in the shooting. He handed the rifle off to his son, prosecutors said, five month before the Waffle House shooting.

The state's attorney said he supplied his son with the firearm with the knowledge he had been a patient in the mental health unit of Methodist Medical Center of Illinois within the past five years, according to the state's attorney.

New details about the state of Travis Reinking's mental health were revealed in the court documents released Thursday.

Authorities responded to a CVS parking lot in Morton in May 2016, where Travis's family members, including his father, told police he had threatened suicide that day and had been having delusions that Taylor Swift was stalking him.

While at the CVS parking lot, Travis Reinking told police Swift previously agreed to meet him at a Dairy Queen after she had hacked his Netflix account. He told police the pop star ran away and scaled the side of a building before climbing onto the roof and disappearing.

Following that incident, he was involuntarily committed to the hospital's mental health unit, where he stayed until June 2016.

Travis Reinking's FOID card was later revoked in August 2017 when he decided to move to Colorado. His firearms were handed off to his father at that time, prosecutors said.

A police officer told Jeffrey Reinking to keep the weapons secured and away from Travis, the state's attorney said.

But three months later, Jeffrey Reinking gave the guns back to his son when he announced his decision to move to Tennessee.

Four months after the shooting, Travis Reinking was ordered to receive treatment for schizophrenia in a mental health facility in hopes that he would become fit for trial.

In October, prosecutors said mental health officials deemed Reinking competent to face charges in court.

Jeffrey Reinking was released on bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on April 25, prosecutors said.