A 29-year-old hero is being hailed for his bravery and kindness after he stopped a shooting in its tracks early on Sunday morning.
After enjoying a night out on the town, James Shaw Jr. was getting a bite to eat with a friend at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee when they heard a heart-stopping crash. According to The New York Times, it took them a moment to realize that the sound was being caused by a man who was firing an assault rifle into the restaurant.
When the shooter stopped to reload, Shaw seized his chance, charged at the man, wrestled the AR-15 out of his hands, and thew it behind the counter.
“I acted in a blink of a second,” Shaw told The Times. “When he reloaded his clip, that felt like 30 minutes. I looked at him, and he wasn’t looking at me. He just had the barrel down. It was like, ‘Do it now. Go now.’ I just took off.”
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The man fled the scene of the crime and Shaw, whose arm had been grazed by a bullet, stayed behind with the other wounded patrons.
In the aftermath of the event, Shaw has been hailed as a hero by celebrities, strangers, and politicians alike – but the humble electrician says that everything was happening too quickly to contemplate heroism. He emphasized in an interview that he would rather people just regard him as “a regular person” because he says: “I feel like everybody can do pretty much what I did.”
The GoFundMe page that he set up for the victims and their families on Monday has already raised over $98,000 in roughly 24 hours. As he healed from his injuries at the hospital, he was able to meet with some of the other survivors and their families and tell them about the outpouring of financial support.
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Meanwhile, a New Yorker named Yashar Ali was moved by all of the news stories about Shaw’s “level of humility”.
Upon hearing that Shaw was the father to a 4-year-old daughter, Ali created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her future education – and the campaign has already reached its $60,000 goal in 12 hours.
“I normally don’t get involved directly in these matters, but James’ grace has inspired me to start this page to give him the support I feel he deserves,” Ali wrote on the page. “Perhaps this money can be used for her college fund or some other education related expense.
“But I’d be just as happy if James used some of this money to take his family on a nice vacation,” he added.
Click To Share The Inspiring Story With Your Friends – Photos by James Shaw Jr.