Alcoa — Two months before authorities say he shot up an Antioch, Tenn., Waffle House, killing four people, a Middle Tennessee man confronted and frightened a motel guest while staying in Alcoa, police records show.
"I didn't really know what to do," Samantha Veals told 10News on Wednesday. "I slept with a hammer by my bed that night."
The incident is one of many examples in which Travis Jeffery Reinking, 29, has displayed bizarre and sometimes violent behavior in recent years.
Reinking faces four counts of criminal homicide, four counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a weapon in the commission of a violent felony in the early Sunday attack at the 24-hour coffee shop. Police say he fired into the Waffle House with an AR-15 rifle before a patron wrestled the gun away.
The gunman fled but was caught the next day.
In February, he was in Alcoa while on a construction job, records show. He stayed at the Alcoa Inn on Airport Highway.
On the night of Feb. 22, according to an incident report, the lanky man got into a confrontation with an East Tennessee woman staying at the motel with two young sons. The woman ended up speaking with Alcoa police and filing a complaint.
The report states the woman was trying to put her sons to bed about 8:30 p.m. Reinking began yelling outside her room.
She opened the door and asked him to be quiet. Veals told 10News he knocking on guests' doors, creating a disturbance.
According to the report, he replied, "I can be as loud as I want!" the report states.
She said she ran back into her room. He followed.
"He ran into my room and acted like he was going to punch me," Veals said.
Her oldest son was sitting on a bed in the room at the time; her youngest was standing on another bed closer to the door. The boy became scared.
Reinking saw the child, laughed, turned around and walked out.
Veals said by his behavior she wondered if he was "on drugs." He appeared "on edge, agitated."
Alcoa police responded to the motel, but Veals said she elected not to pursue charges.
Reinking told officers he'd yelled at Veals but hadn't gone into her room. When police arrived, he was in the process of checking out and going somewhere else.
He told police he'd been awakened repeatedly by people making noise in the night at the Alcoa Inn and that he needed to wake up at 4 a.m. for work.
"He stated that on (the 22nd) he 'had enough' and decided to run around yelling to cause a disturbance 'to show them what it's like,' " the report states.
In the document, Alcoa Officer Eric Long explained that he couldn't arrest Reinking but that she had the option of pressing charges. She did not go through with it, however, she said.
According to the report, "She stated that she understood and requested that a report be filed should any further incidences occur between herself Mr. Reinking or the Alcoa Inn."
Veals said she only learned Wednesday that the man who confronted her was the same person accused in the AR-15 shooting at the Waffle House.
"It's a horrible situation," she said.
Veals added: "You never know what people are capable of." She expressed sympathy for the shooting victims.
In July, Reinking appeared at the White House, demanding to speak with President Trump. He was detained by the Secret Service. He said he was a "sovereign citizen," beholden to no government.
Authorities in Illinois, where he lived at the time, ordered that he give up four weapons including an AR-15. The weapons were given to his father, who ultimately returned them to Reinking, according to reports.
On Wednesday, The Tennessean reported that Reinking lived for a time in 2016 and 2017 in Colorado, working for a crane company.
He appeared to have an obsession with singer Taylor Swift, insisting he'd marry her. But he also told co-workers "Swift was stalking and harassing him, and hacking his bank accounts," the newspaper reported.
He quit in 2017 and moved back to Illinois. His old boss called Reinking's father, according to The Tennessean, relaying concerns that Reinking was mentally ill.
"In June, 2017, Illinois police intervened again," according to the newspaper. "Reinking had threatened an employee of his father's crane company while holding an AR-15 rifle and wearing a pink dress.
"Later the same day, he drove to a public pool, took off the pink dress and jumped in, exposing himself and yelling at those present.
Early Sunday, Reinking fled the shooting scene nude, after shedding a green bomber jacket in which he'd been carrying ammunition, according to Metro Nashville police.