DENVER – Travis Reinking, the man accused of shooting and killing four people at a Tennessee Waffle House earlier this week, called 911 in Chaffee County, Colo. in March 2017 to say pop star Taylor Swift was stalking him and that people were controlling his online activities.
The 911 call provides more insight into Reinking’s mental state while he was in Colorado, and his contact with Colorado law enforcement authorities, which Denver7 first reported Monday.
Listen to the full 911 call in the player above.
In the call, Reinking, who lived on W. 5th St. in Salida at the time while working for a crane operation company, says that someone has been stalking him and that “no one seems to take me seriously when I say that.”
When the dispatcher asks Reinking who is stalking him, he replies, “Taylor Swift!”
The dispatcher asks Reinking what she is doing that constitutes stalking.
“Everywhere I go, they’re stalking me on the internet. They’re stalking me, like, in person – everywhere I go,” Reinking says. “I’m pretty sure the police here are involved in it. And like, I want it to stop. It’s stupid. No one has the right to do that to me.”
The dispatcher asks for more details.
“They’re getting, like, on my – they’re doing some kind of, like – I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how they’re doing it,” Reinking says.
“But somehow they’re like getting on my Facebook, they’re getting on my YouTube, they’re getting on my Netflix, and they’re changing the videos that I see as they pop up,” he continues. “And like after I go watch this stuff, I’ll go out somewhere and realize, and then there will be like internet WiFi hotspots that say the same things on them.”
The dispatcher says an officer will meet him at his home to discuss the matter, and the call ends shortly afterward.
Salida Police Chief Terry Clark told Denver7 Monday that after officers contacted Reinking and he reported the alleged harassment by Swift, that officers declined to continue investigating his claims.
“After some conversation, it was apparent it probably wasn’t going to go any further with the harassment call,” Clark said. “Officers didn’t feel they had enough to open a harassment case on somebody with Taylor Swift as the stalker.”
In similar Illinois incidents, Reinking’s parents had told police that their son believed Taylor Swift was stalking him and that he’d made suicidal comments.
That, paired with an arrest that came when he breached White House security later last summer and claimed he was a “sovereign citizen,” led to Reinking’s four guns being confiscated by law enforcement authorities, though they were later returned to his father, who in turn gave them back to Reinking.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday that Reinking’s father may have violated federal law by doing so.
The Associated Press also reported Wednesday that Reinking’s boss at the Colorado crane company said she had told Secret Service officials that Reinking should stay in custody after the White House arrest.
“We told them, ‘Hang onto him if you can. Help him if you can,’” Darlene Sustrich told The AP.
A judge revoked Reinking’s $2 million bond Tuesday after protests. The county sheriff in charge of the jail where Reinking is being held said Tuesday that Reinking has so far been cooperative.