'I'm Not A Hero,' Says James Shaw Jr., Acclaimed As Hero Of Waffle House Attack

"I'm not a hero. I'm just a regular person," said James Shaw Jr., who police say saved lives by disarming a man who opened fire Sunday at a Waffle House in Tennessee. Shaw insists he acted only to save himself — but many others are calling him a hero for stopping the violence.

"I think anybody could've did what I did if they're just pushed in that kind of cage," Shaw said, "and you have to either react or you're going to, you know, fold."

Shaw was speaking at a news conference convened by city leaders after the late-night attack, in which six people were shot in Antioch, Tenn., on the outskirts of Nashville. Three of the victims died at the scene, and a fourth died at the hospital. A manhunt is now on for the suspected attacker, Travis Reinking. And police are also praising Shaw.

"He is the hero here, and no doubt he saved many lives," Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron said on Sunday.

Shaw, 29, is the father of a young girl and lives in Nashville, according to his Facebook page. He attended Tennessee State University and works as a technician for AT&T.

On Sunday, he was asked if he had any sort of military training, and if he was surprised by what he'd done. "Yeah, I knew I had it in me. I haven't had any specific combat training," he said. "I just fight my daughter every night, so I can put her to bed."

Shaw and a friend, Brennan McMurry, had been out Saturday night when they were looking for a bite to eat. They tried one Waffle House, but it was too crowded. So they went to the restaurant on Murfreesboro Pike in Antioch, where a gunman opened fire and began killing people, first outside and then inside. It didn't stop until Shaw managed to take the man's rifle away.

When asked about his heroic act, Shaw has repeatedly demurred.

"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. 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."

At the news conference and in interviews, Shaw has said he's sorry for the loss of life at the restaurant, and that he feels badly that he couldn't get to the gunman sooner.

When the shooting started, Shaw said he dived toward the bathroom. A bullet grazed his elbow — and he realized there was nowhere else for him to go. When Shaw saw the gunman point the barrel of his rifle down toward the ground, pausing to either reload or fix a jam, Shaw saw his chance.

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