US police hunted a semi-nude gunman who shot four people dead at a waffle restaurant Sunday after he fled from a “hero” who disarmed him. Police in the Tennessee city of Nashville said the suspect in the country’s latest mass shooting may have had “mental issues,” and the incident led the city’s mayor to issue an unusually blunt call for “comprehensive gun reform.” The Metro Nashville Police Department said Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, and Deebony Groves, 21, were shot dead at the all-night Waffle House restaurant in the suburb of Antioch at 3:25 am (0825 GMT). The fourth victim, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva, died in hospital. Meanwhile Shanita Waggoner, 21, and Sharita Henderson, 24, were wounded and taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Travis Reinking and said he could be armed with a rifle and a handgun, after firing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at the restaurant, where he was nude except for a green jacket. A military-style weapon, the AR-15 has been regularly used in US mass shootings. James Shaw, 29, told a press conference that he and his friend had sat down in the diner after visiting a nightclub, when they thought a pile of plates had crashed. “I saw the Waffle House employees scatter. Then I looked back and I saw a person laying on the ground right at the entrance of the door,” said Shaw, wearing a brown suit jacket and with his right forearm bandaged. Shaw said he slid from his table and moved toward the door, which the gunman was trying to enter after apparently firing through the glass.
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