Davidson County, Tn., Sheriff Daron Hall expressed frustration about the number of guns and the criminal justice system’s handling of people with mental illnesses in light of the murder case at the Antioch, Tn., Waffle House, reports BuzzFeed News. Travis Reinking, 29, was booked on murder charges Monday night and is being held at the Maximum Correctional Center in South Nashville. A Nashville judge on Tuesday revoked his $2 million bond. Hall said Reinking would be monitored every 15 minutes by medical staff and corrections officers. He will be clothed only in an anti-suicide smock.
The sheriff expressed his frustration with the criminal justice system, saying, “It cannot solve the mental health problem.” He said the Waffle House shooting was “evidence that we have too many guns and too many mentally ill people.” Reinking allegedly killed four people using an AR-15 rifle that had been confiscated by authorities last year after run-ins with the law.”I think anyone can conclude after reading [police reports] that there’s evidence [Reinking] has mental health issues,” said Tazewell County Sheriff Bob Huston. Hall said that 40 perecent of inmates housed in the same maximum corrections facility as Reinking “don’t belong here.” He said mental health should be treated as “a health issue instead of hidden in jails and prisons.”