Tennessee shooting: Travis Reinking attacks Waffle House, kills four, but stopped by customer, James Shaw

An Illinois man from outside Peoria, Morton, Illinois, Travis Reinking, attacked a Waffle House in Nashville, shooting six and killing four people and escaping police.

Metro Nashville Police Department stated that Reinking, 29, allegedly was wearing only a green jacket when he opened fire at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday on the Waffle House in Antioch, just outside Nashville.

James Shaw Jr., 29, took a selfie of himself Sunday showing an injury as well as a bandaged hand. Shaw was able to wrestle the rifle away from the shooter.

Police dogs tracked Reinking to a nearby wooded area with power line towers, police said. He is not believed to be armed, but police said he has a propensity for guns, so not ruling out that he may be armed and dangerous.

Don Aaron, spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said a customer came from the bathroom area and wrestled with the suspect, freeing the rifle away from Reinking.

“He is the hero here, and no doubt he saved many lives by wrestling the gun away and then tossing it over the counter, and prompting the man to leave,” Aaron said.

A witness who was in the parking lot told WTVF that the good Samaritan rushed in while the gunman had stopped firing and was looking at the weapon.<
“Had that guy reloaded, there were plenty more people who probably could have not made it home this morning,” the witness said.

Two people were fatally shot outside the restaurant as Reinking started firing his as he got out of his truck, police said. One person was shot inside the restaurant and a fourth person died at a hospital. Six total people were shot, and others sustained injuries from flying glass and debris.

“My friend ‘T,’ the cook at Waffle House, died trying to get away,” witness Chuck Cordero told CNN.

Shaw spoke with the Tennessean: “I don’t really know, when everyone said that, it feels selfish,” he said when asked about the descriptions of him as a hero. “I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.” He said he was grazed by a bullet, treated for a minor gunshot wound, and released from the hospital Sunday morning.

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