TN v. Travis Reinking Murder Trial Day 1 - Prosecution Opening Statement by Jan Norman

LIVE Coverage: TN v. Travis Reinking Murder Trial - Waffle House Mass Shooting

Happening In Court:
Arguments Outside Jury Presence - Pretrial Hearing On Mental Health Testimony
Reading Of Jury Instructions
Reading of the Indictment
Prosecution Opening Statement by Jan Norman

After more than three years, the man charged with murdering four people at a Waffle House will stand trial. Jurors will determine the fate of Travis Reinking in a courtroom in Davidson County, Tennessee. It took this long to make it to proceedings because the court had previously determined him unfit for trial.

Reinking opened fire at the restaurant in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville on April 22, 2018, authorities have said. He killed Akilah Dasilva, 23, DeEbony Groves, 21, Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, and Joe R. Perez, 20. Shanita Waggoner, 21, and Sharita Henderson, 24, were injured. Authorities credit James Shaw Jr. with disarming Reinking, sustaining a gunshot graze wound and burn to his right hand from grabbing the barrell of the AR-15 used in the attack.

Shaw said Reinking started cursing him out when he wrenched away the rifle and threw it over the countertop. He downplayed his actions, saying he was not a hero and he was just trying to save himself.

“He was mad at me,” he said of Reinking, according to The New York Times. “I was just trying to live. I wasn’t trying to get no money from him. I wasn’t trying to do anything from his standpoint. I just wanted to live, and he was, like, astonished that I wanted to live.”

Families sued over the tragedy. DaSilva’s family for example settled a lawsuit with the city after saying he could have been saved if a dispatcher had not sent police to the wrong Waffle House.

Reinking was not even supposed to have a gun because he was previously arrested in a restricted area near the White House, authorities said. His father Jeffrey L. Reinking gave him the rifle that was used in the mass shooting, authorities said.

[Booking photo via Metropolitan Nashville Police Department]

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