Rob Reiner’s son arrested for murder after his parents’ death

Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, was arrested and charged with murder after his parents were found dead Sunday afternoon local time in Los Angeles.

The arrest came the day after the father and son were seen arguing at party the previous night at the home of comedian Conan O’Brien, according to a party attendee who recalled Rob Reiner telling his son that his behaviour was inappropriate.

Nick Reiner was taken into custody at 9.15pm Sunday and booked at 5.04am Monday. He is being held in a Los Angeles County jail with no bail, which had been initially set at $US4 million.

Two people who were briefed on the case but not authorised to speak publicly said the couple had been stabbed to death, the New York Times reported. There are unconfirmed reports the couple’s throats were slit.

“As a result of the initial investigation, it was determined that the Reiners were the victims of homicide. The investigation further revealed that Nick Reiner ... was responsible for their deaths,” the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Rob Reiner, a director and actor whose career spanned decades in Hollywood, and Michele Singer Reiner, his wife of 36 years, were found dead at their Brentwood home, pictured, by the couple’s daughter Romy, who told police another family member had killed them.

The case is being handled by the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.

Reiner was 78. Authorities said Singer Reiner was “around 68.”

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” the family said in a statement shared with multiple media outlets. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”

Paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a request for medical aid at Reiner’s home in Brentwood on Sunday just after 3.30pm local time, department spokesperson Margaret Stewart said.

Rob Reiner’s adopted daughter Tracy from his marriage to Penny Marshall said she’d seen her father the day before he died. “I came from the greatest family ever,” she told NBC News. “I don’t know what to say. I’m in shock.”

As tributes poured in from entertainers and politicians, Donald Trump unleashed an extraordinary broadside, suggesting that Rob Reiner brought on his own murder by criticising the US President.

Mr Trump claimed the Reiners had died “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 was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession,” the Republican leader wrote.

Later, he doubled down, saying Rob Reiner was “very bad for our country.”

The comments were blasted by two prominent right-wing Republicans, including Representative Thomas Massie, who called them “inappropriate and disrespectful.”

“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid?” Mr Massie wrote on social media.

British broadcaster Piers Morgan, a longtime friend of Trump, wrote: “This is a dreadful thing to say about a man who just got murdered by his troubled son. Delete it, Mr President.”

Rob Reiner was a major force in Democratic politics and a frequent critic of the President. His shocking and violent death drew immediate comparisons with the assassination in September of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

In a twist of fate, Michele Reiner took the portrait photograph that appeared on The Art of the Deal, Mr Trump’s ghostwritten memoir.

Rob Reiner and his son Nick collaborated on the 2015 film Being Charlie, which was inspired by Nick’s history of drug addiction. Reiner directed the family drama — starring Cary Elwes and Nick Robinson as father and son — and Nick co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Elisofon, whom he met in rehab. Substantial portions of the story come directly from the Reiners’ lives, including times when the title character is living on the street or in homeless shelters.

When the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Nick told the Los Angeles Times, “I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do this.” His father added: “It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows. And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”

Still, Reiner said the filmmaking process helped him process his son’s rehab stints and their fights: “To be honest, by the time we got to the point of making the movie it didn’t matter if we actually did,” he said. “Because our relationship had gotten so much closer.”

Nick Reiner spoke of his childhood relationship with his father. “We didn’t bond a lot,” he said, adding that working on the film with his father had made him “feel closer to him.”

At the time the film was released, Nick Reiner said he had been back home in Los Angeles and was staying clean.

“Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in LA and being around my family,” he told People. “But there was a lot of dark years there.”

Nick Reiner’s most recent public appearance alongside his father was in September, when the director was photographed with his family on the red carpet for the premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

The son of entertainers Carl and Estelle Reiner, Rob Reiner earned two Emmy Awards for his role as Mike “Meathead” Stivic on the sitcom All in the Family and turned in memorable performances in movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and Throw Momma From the Train.

Beginning with This Is Spinal Tap in 1984, Reiner directed a run of indelible films, including Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally …, A Few Good Men, The American President and more. His prolific career extended into the 2020s, when he directed a documentary about his friend Albert Brooks, had a recurring role in season 4 of The Bear and recently released a Spinal Tap sequel, The End Continues.

Movie heavyweight John Cusack said he was “at a loss for any words that make sense” about the deaths.

Horror and thriller writer Stephen King, whose novella “The Body” was the basis for “Stand By Me,” lauded a “wonderful friend.”

Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for her part in Reiner’s “Misery,” said he was “brilliant and kind, a man who made films of every genre to challenge himself as an artist.”

Actor-director Ben Stiller paid tribute to “a kind caring person who was really really funny,” and someone who “made some of the most formative movies for my generation.”

Democratic politicians also expressed shock.

Former US president Barack Obama said he and his wife Michelle were “heartbroken.”

with The New York Times