Terror at Breakfast
BY EMILY RUBINO
“‘Have you met James? James saved a lot of lives.’”
On April 22, James Shaw Jr and a friend found themselves seated at their local Waffle House in Nashville. Moments later, NPR reports, four people sitting around them were fatally shot by Travis J. Reinking, a 29 year old construction worker.
Reinking entered the restaurant with an AR-15, unloading the bullets on Joe R. Perez, DeEbony Groves, Taurean C. Sanderlin, and Akilah Dasilva. While reloading the weapon, Shaw saw his opportunity to stop the attack and wrestled the shooter until he “managed to seize the rifle and hurled it over a countertop” Alan Blinder of the New York Times reports.
The gunman was pushed out of the building and ran, eventually apprehended by police who found Reinking with “a semiautomatic gun and ammunition in his backpack...after following up on a tip,” Kalhan Rosenblatt and Daniella Silva of NBC News states.
Shaw walked away from the incident with a burned hand and a wound on his elbow from a bullet that grazed his arm. Alan Blinder states that officials concluded “there would have been greater bloodshed had… James Shaw Jr. not wrestled the rifle away from Mr. Reinking.”
Despite his heroic actions, Shaw refuses to be called a hero, insisting that he is “just a regular person.” He states that he was simply determined to keep himself alive during the incident, adding that one could “walk away from a burned hand… but a couple of bullet holes, you might not be able to walk away from that," according to Chappell of NPR.
In addition to taking down the gunman, Shaw also started a GoFundMe page for the victims of the shooting in which he asks people to “please take the time to donate as all of the proceeds will be given to the families,” CNN’s Yan and Grinberg note.
According to Herman Wong of The Washington Post, Shaw left the hospital after being treated for his injuries, “went home, changing his clothes, and then attended church with his family”, asserting out that the shooting should not be “the focal point of [his] life.”
In only nine days, Shaw has raised $216,868 for the victims.
Emanuella Grinberg of CNN reports that Reinking is currently in police custody as his multiple misdemeanors involving firearms are still being investigated.
Works Cited
Blinder, Alan. “'I Just Wanted to Live,' Says Man Who Wrestled Rifle From Waffle House
Gunman.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/us/waffle-house-hero-james-shaw.html.
Chappell, Bill. “'I'm Not A Hero,' Says James Shaw Jr., Acclaimed As Hero Of Waffle House
Attack.” NPR, NPR, 23 Apr. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/23/604879633/im-not-a-hero-says-james-shaw-jr-acclaimed-hero-of-waffle-house-attack.
Grinberg, Emanuella. “The Waffle House Shooting Suspect Thought Taylor Swift Was Stalking
Him.” CNN, Cable News Network, 24 Apr. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/04/22/us/travis-reinking-waffle-house-shooting/index.html.
Rosenblatt, Kalhan, and Daniella Silva. “Waffle House Shooting: Suspect in Killing of Four
Taken into Custody after Manhunt.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/waffle-house-shooting-manhunt-underway-suspect-spree-killed-4-n868411.
Wong, Herman. “James Shaw Jr. on Why He Rushed the Waffle House Shooter: 'He Was Going
to Have to Work to Kill Me'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Apr. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/22/james-shaw-jr-on-why-he-rushed-the-waffle-house-shooter-he-was-going-to-have-to-work-to-kill-me/?utm_term=.770d5b17ff32.
Yan, Holly, and Emanuella Grinberg. “Waffle House Shooting Suspect Jailed on Murder
Charges.” CNN, Cable News Network, 24 Apr. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/04/23/us/waffle-house-shooting-manhunt/index.html.