PICTURED: ‘Hero’ diner who saved multiple lives by tackling the Waffle House gunman and throwing his AR-15 over the counter during shooting that left four dead and seven injured
Travis Reinking, 29, has been identified as a person of interest in the shooting
The vehicle the gunman arrived in to the restaurant is registered to Reinking
Customer was able to wrestle the gun away from the shooter and he fled on foot
Police said the man was only wearing a green jacket at the time of the shooting
By ANNETA KONSTANTINIDES
DAILYMAIL.COM
22 April 2018
The 29-year-old man who stopped a naked gunman after he opened fire at a Tennessee Waffle House on Sunday said he doesn’t feel like a hero.
James Shaw Jr has been identified as the man who wrestled with the gunman, who killed four people and seven others in Antioch on Sunday morning before fleeing.
Shaw Jr was grazed by a bullet and treated for a minor gunshot wound on his elbow. He has since been released from the hospital.
Travis Reinking, 29, was initially named as a person of interest in the shooting and remains at large. Metro Nashville Police Department said he is now wanted for murder.
Shaw Jr said he was just trying to stay alive when he tackled the shooter and grabbed his assault rifle, throwing it over the counter.
‘I was just trying to get myself out,’ Shaw Jr told The Tennessean. ‘I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.’
Shots rang out at the restaurant around 3.25am on Sunday, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department.
A man who was only clothed in a green jacket and armed with an AR-15 shot six people before Shaw Jr stopped him.
‘I don’t know if it has hit me yet as far as witnessing other people dying,’ Shaw Jr said.
‘It shouldn’t have happened. When I was in the ambulance to hospital, I kept thinking that I’m going to wake up and it’s not going to be real. It’s something out of a movie.’
‘I’m okay though, but I hate that it happened.’
Reinking was on the radar of both the FBI and law enforcement out of state ‘due to previous interactions’, according to The Tennessean.
Two of the people who died were killed outside of Waffle House and one person was fatally shot inside the restaurant, according to ABC.
A fourth person died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where one victim remains in critical condition and another is in critical but stable condition.
Authorities said a total of eight people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including six who had gunshot wounds.
Police said the suspect shot out the front window of the restaurant, leaving many people inside with visible cuts on their faces from glass.
The vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to Reinking, who is from Morton, Illinois.
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