Footage has shown Nick Reiner calmly buying a drink at a gas station just moments before he was arrested for the murder of his parents.
The screenwriter, wearing a black cap and a red backpack, is seen queuing up and purchasing the drink before cops apprehended him over the killings of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
Emergency services were called to provide medical aid at his parents’ home in Brentwood, California, at about 3.30pm on Sunday.
At around 9pm, Nick was arrested in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles, close to the University of Southern California campus, some 15 miles away from the mansion where he allegedly killed his parents.
He did not resist when he was arrested, Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said.
The 32-year-old has now been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail in Los Angeles.
The indictment also includes a ‘special allegation’ that the suspect used a ‘dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife’.
Nick, who has struggled with drug addiction, mental illness and bouts of homelessness over the years, could potentially be sentenced to life in prison or even face the death penalty if he’s convicted of murder.
The charges also include a special circumstance of committing multiple murders, which can elevate them to a more severe crime.
The couple’s 27-year-old daughter, Romy, who lives across the street from her parents, was the first person to find their bodies, according to Los Angeles Times and TMZ.
The night before their murders, the Reiners were heard having an explosive argument with Nick at a festive Hollywood party thrown by Conan O’Brien, the late-night television show host.
Moments before the fight, Nick was apparently ‘freaking everyone out’ and ‘acting crazy’, asking everyone at the mansion in the Pacific Palisades if they were famous, a source told People magazine.
Reiner directed a handful of legendary films in a variety of genres before his death aged 78, including This is Spinal Tap, Misery, A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally and Stand by Me.
Michele, 70, was a producer, photographer and actress, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production house.
The Hollywood couple left the Christmas party early after the argument unfolded in front of some of the industry’s biggest stars, according to TMZ.
As well as arguing with his parents, Nick allegedly ‘stormed off’ after getting into a tense chat with comedian Bill Hader.
A source claimed to NBC News that Nick ‘interrupted Hader’ at the party and was allegedly left annoyed when the SNL comic told him he was ‘in the middle of a private conversation.’
The source claimed after Hader’s alleged comment: ‘Nick just stood there and stared before storming off.’
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On Monday, Donald Trump sparked fury after he suggested ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ had contributed to the director’s death.
The President wrote on his Truth Social platform: ‘A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind-crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome.
‘He [Reiner] was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!’
Michelle Obama later defended the Reiners on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, describing them as ‘decent, courageous people’.
She said she and Barack Obama had known the couple for ‘many years’ and had been scheduled to meet them the day they were found dead.
She told the late-night host: ‘Let me just say this – unlike some people, Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you’d ever want to know. They are not deranged or crazed. What they have always been are passionate people in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on.’
Just two weeks before her parents’ murders, Romy shared heartwarming vacation photos on Instagram, writing that she was ‘thankful for family’.
The 27-year-old went to check on her film director father and mom after their masseuse said they failed to answer the door around 2pm Sunday, sources told the Daily Mail.
When she arrived at their $13.5 million Brentwood mansion, she found them dead, allegedly with their throats slit.
Horrified, Romy allegedly told police that a family member ‘should be a suspect’ because they are ‘dangerous’.
Prosecutors did not answer whether Nick was under the influence of drugs at the time of the killings or whether he was suffering from a mental health disorder.
‘If there is evidence of mental illness, it will be presented in court,’ said Jim McDonnell, the LAPD chief of police.
In 2016, aged 22, Nick claimed he had already gone to rehab 17 times and had been left homeless repeatedly after refusing offers of help.
‘I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas. I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,’ he told People magazine.
‘If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless,’ he said, seemingly referring to his family.
His experience battling addiction later became the subject of a semi-autobiographical film he co-wrote with his father, called Being Charlie, that explores his struggles with heroin and homelessness.
Sunday’s tragedy comes after Romy previously shared her closeness with her brother, describing Nick as her ‘best friend’ and revealing that she had supported him throughout his battle with drug addiction.
In 2015, the Reiner family sat around a dinner table for an interview with the LA Times to discuss Being Charlie.
‘This is my best friend and I was there for all of it,’ Romy said at the time. ‘It’s weird but good to see it on the screen.’
Rob and Michele’s deaths were confirmed on Sunday night in a family statement.
‘It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,’ said a spokesman.
‘We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.’
Family members came together on Tuesday to share their grief over the iconic filmmaker and his wife’s murders.
Lucas Reiner, the brother of the late Rob, was pictured greeting other members of the extended family after inviting them over to his home in Los Angeles in photos taken by the Daily Mail.
The grieving relatives hugged each other closely on the same day that Nick was charged.
