The man who rushed and disarmed a gunman at a Tennessean Waffle House has been hailed a hero, but 29-year-old James Shaw Jr. is uncomfortable with the high praise.
“I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it,” said Shaw Jr., a father-of-one, according to the Tennessean.
“I choose to react because I didn’t want to die. I just wanted to live. I didn’t really fight that man to save everyone else,” Shaw Jr. continued.
Police believe suspected shooter Travis Reinking, wearing nothing but a green jacket, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at the Nashville-area Waffle House around 3:25 a.m. Sunday. Four people were killed and at least seven were injured in the rampage.
Shaw Jr. managed to wrestle the weapon away from Reinking as he was reloading, escaping with a gunshot wound and burns from seizing the barrel.
“I distinctively remember thinking that he is going to have to work for this kill,” Shaw Jr. said, per the news outlet.
“I grabbed the gun and kept it down. He had one hand on it. I pulled it away and threw it over the bar,” he added.
Shaw Jr., an electrician who works for AT&T, then pushed Reinking out the door of the Waffle House, but didn’t follow him because he feared Reinking had another weapon.
Shaw Jr. joked with reporters at a press conference Sunday that his only combat training prior to the incident was struggling to get four-year-old daughter Brooklyn to bed.
Reinking, also 29, remains at large.
Reinking was previously arrested by the U.S. Secret Service in July 2017 for being in a restricted area outside the White House.
