Police said many more lives would have been lost if James Shaw Jr (pictured with his gunshot wound at the hospital after the shooting) had not fought a half-naked gunman on a shooting spree at a Tennessee Waffle House on Sunday.
The 29-year-old hero was able to disarm the shooter who killed four people and wounded many more.
Shaw Jr said he was just trying to stay alive when he tackled the shooter and grabbed his assault rifle, throwing it over the counter.
‘I was just trying to get myself out,’ Shaw Jr told The Tennessean. ‘I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.’
Police have a suspect in the case — Travis Reinking, 29 — and a search is underway.