Police on Monday arrested the man suspected of fatally shooting four people at a Waffle House restaurant, ending a 36-hour manhunt after tips from the public led police to search secluded woods nearby.

Photos posted online by Nashville police showed Travis Reinking, a 29-year-old construction worker, in custody. He was suspected of opening fire with an assault rifle at the restaurant early Sunday then fleeing the scene naked.

Photographed in the back of a police car, he looked disheveled and was wearing a torn red shirt and dirty blue jeans. He had scratches on his shoulder.

No motive was known for the attack that sent shudders through one of the biggest cities in the US South and stoked a simmering national debate on gun control.

Reinking, who had a pistol and ammunition in a backpack when he was arrested, was not talking to police. He was being held at a Nashville jail with initial bond set at $500,000 for each of four murder charges, online jail records showed.

More than 150 city, state and local law enforcement agents searched for the gunman, who has had a history of bizarre behavior, delusions and multiple encounters with authorities, including an episode in Washington in July 2017 when he was arrested for trying to get into the White House, according to police records.

"We need to move on as a community and do what we can to curb this violence," Nashville Mayor David Briley told a news conference near the Waffle House, describing the attack as a tragedy.

Tips from people in the neighborhood helped lead police to search through the woods about 3 kilometers from the restaurant using sniffer dogs on the ground and aircraft overhead.

Metropolitan Nashville police Lieutenant Carlos Lara said as soon as a detective saw Reinking and ordered him to get on the ground, the suspect cooperated.

"He did not try to run," Lara said at the same news conference.

In addition to the four deaths, two people were injured in the attack.