Even though their team was focused on the playoff game, the Nashville Predators still took the time on Sunday night to pay tribute to one of their city’s heroes.
Early in the first period the announcers at Bridgestone Arena told the fans in attendance that James Shaw Jr., the man who disarmed Travis Reinking during the Waffle House mass shooting, was in attendance. The crowd gave him a standing ovation as the big-screen camera cut to Shaw in his seat.
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Thanks @PredsNHL for recognizing Nashville HERO James Shaw Jr. from the Waffle House shooting at tonight’s playoff game. Go Preds! pic.twitter.com/S2M0ahzmj4
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 29, 2018
On April 22, Reinking allegedly brought at AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle with him to a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee, a southern suburb of Nashville. Wearing nothing but a green jacket, he opened fire from outside the building and killed four people. Shaw attacked and disarmed Reinking, wrenching the gun out of his hands after a bullet grazed his arm and the barrel burned the palm of his hand.
Shaw described as actions as pure survival instincts.
“I did that completely out of a selfish act. I was completely doing it just to save myself,” Shaw said, reports CNN. “I don’t want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that.”
He was dubbed a hero for his actions, though he personally feels the label doesn’t suit him.
“I don’t really know, when everyone said that (I was a hero), it feels selfish,” Shaw told The Tennessean. “I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.”
“I don’t know if it has hit me yet as far as witnessing other people dying,” Shaw said. “It’s kind of, 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 is something out a movie. I’m OK though, but I hate that it happened.”
He attended a vigil for the four victims — 29-year-old Taurea C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva and 21-year-old DeEbony Groves — on Wednesday and was reunited with his four-year-old daughter for the first time since the shooting.
“I’m just in a weird spot right now because I got a lot of sadness, but this is the first time I’ve seen her since the incident,” Shaw said. “I actually tried to count the hairs on her eyelashes just because I was like, I almost didn’t see them anymore.”
The 29-year-old also launched a GoFundMe page seeking donations for the families of the victims. He set a goal of $15,000, but after just one week it was up to a whopping $204,794 thanks to donations from over 5,000 people.
