LOS ANGELES — The 32-year-old son of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner was arrested on suspicion of murder and held without bail Monday in the stabbing deaths of his parents in their Los Angeles home, authorities said.
The case will be given to prosecutors on Tuesday as they consider formal charges against Nick Reiner, who was taken into custody hours after Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead.
Representatives for Reiner's family did not immediately respond to a request for comment and it wasn't clear if Nick Reiner had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Nick Reiner has spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction. By 18, he had cycled in and out of treatment facilities with bouts of homelessness and relapses in between. Rob and Nick Reiner explored their difficult relationship and Nick Reiner's struggles with drugs in a semi-autobiographical 2016 film, "Being Charlie."
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Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead Sunday at their home in Los Angeles, and investigators believe they suffered stab wounds, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official, who was briefed on the investigation, confirmed that Nick Reiner was being held but could not publicly discuss the details and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division were investigating an "apparent homicide" at Reiner's home, police Capt. Mike Bland said Sunday.
Trump attacks
President Donald Trump blamed Rob Reiner's outspoken opposition to the president for the actor-director's killing Monday.
Trump, in a post on his social media network, said Reiner and his wife were killed "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 said 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."
Trump has a long track record of inflammatory remarks, but his comments in a social media post were a drastic departure from the role presidents typically play in offering a message of consolation or tribute after the death of a public figure.
His message drew criticism even from conservatives and his supporters and laid bare Trump's unwillingness to rise above political grievance in moments of crisis.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who has bucked much of his party's lockstep agreement with the president, criticized Trump for the comment.
"Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered," Massie wrote on social media. "I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they're afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican whom Trump branded a "traitor" for disagreeing with him, responded to Trump's message by saying, "This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."
Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, both moderates who rarely publicly disagree with the president, also posted messages criticizing Trump's message.
Reiner was one of the most active Democrats in the film industry, regularly campaigning on behalf of liberal causes and hosting fundraisers.
He was a vocal critic of Trump, calling him in a 2017 interview with Variety "mentally unfit" to be president and "the single-most unqualified human being to ever assume the presidency of the United States."
The White House, which amplified the president's post, did not respond to a message about the criticism it was receiving and calls for Trump to take it down.
The unsympathetic message was the latest example of Trump's unsparing prism through which he views those he perceives as enemies.
He made retribution against political enemies a prime focus of his campaign for the White House last year. And he has in the past made light of violence when it's befallen those on the other side of the political aisle.
When Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked by an intruder looking for the former House speaker at the family's San Francisco home in 2022 and beaten over the head with a hammer, Trump later mocked the attack.
That's despite his comments after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year. Trump said Kirk's killing was "the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree."
His administration then sought consequences for people who were critical of Kirk or celebrated his killing.
Hollywood tragedy
Reiner was long one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and his work included some of the most memorable movies of the 1980s and '90s, including "This is Spinal Tap," "A Few Good Men," "When Harry Met Sally," and "The Princess Bride."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it a devastating loss for the city.
"Rob Reiner's contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice," Bass said in a statement. "An acclaimed actor, director, producer, writer, and engaged political activist, he always used his gifts in service of others."
Killings are rare in the Brentwood neighborhood. The scene is about a mile from the home where O.J. Simpson's wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were killed in 1994.
