Waffle House Hero

In the early hours of Sunday morning a gunman opened fire on diners at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tenn. The gunman fired his AR-15 first in the parking lot and then he came inside. He shot and killed 4 people and wounded 4 others. But the death and injury toll could have been much worse if 29-year-old James Shaw Jr., had not come to the rescue.

Shaw, who was among the restaurant’s patrons, said he had been hiding in the bathroom after he heard the gunfire. But he came out and was grazed by a bullet. He hit the gunman with the bathroom door. He then grabbed the rifle which burned the palm of his hand. He began struggling with the gunman and Shaw eventually wrested the rifle away and threw it over a counter and out of the way. During their struggle the attacker, cursed Shaw out and blamed him for everything.

When asked why he took such courageous action Shaw said, “I did that completely out of a selfish act. I was completely doing it just to save myself. Now, me doing that, I did save other people,” he said humbly. “But I don’t want people to think that I was the Terminator, or Superman or anybody like that. It was just, I figured if I was going to die, he was going to have to work for it.”

Seeing that Shaw saved the lives of so many at the Waffle House people are praising him as a hero. Shaw however, would beg to differ with them saying, “I’m not a hero. I’m just a regular person.”

The suspect, now identified as Travis Reinking fled the scene after Shaw took away his gun. He was found walking through the woods in Nashville. Police credit a “civilian’s tip” for leading them to the suspect. He was taken into custody and will be booked on four counts of criminal homicide.