--- title: James Shaw Jr. Stopped the Waffle House Shooter. Now He’s Raising Thousands for the Victims description: James Shaw Jr., the hero who stopped a gunman in the Waffle House shooting, has set up a GoFundMe page to help the victims. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2018-04-23T16:24:50.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T10:22:11.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - AR-15 - Charity - Crowdfunding - Donations - Mass Shooting - Waffle House word_count: 530 canonical: https://money.com/james-shaw-jr-waffle-house-hero/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Man who disarmed gunman hailed as a hero, Nashville, USA - 22 Apr 2018](https://img.money.com/2018/04/180423-james-shaw-hero-waffle-house-crowdfunding1.jpg) *James Shaw Jr., hailed as a hero after he wrestled an assault rifle away from gunman at a Waffle House Restaurant, speaks during a press conference in Nashville, Tennessee, April 22, 2018. Shaw said that he was simply trying to save himself and it worked out well for others. The gunman killed four and injured several others. He escaped and remains on the loose.* Roughly 12 hours after it was created, a [GoFundMe campaign](https://www.gofundme.com/5g07bvs) to help the victims of this weekend's Waffle House shooting exceeded its initial $15,000 fundraising goal. By Monday afternoon, donors had brought the fundraising total to over $32,000. Donors seem to have been particularly quick to contribute to the cause based on who created the fundraising campaign: James Shaw Jr., the 29-year-old hero who wrestled the Waffle House gunman's weapon away from him and stopped the killing. (Four people died and two others were wounded during the shooting, which took place in Antioch, in the Nashville metropolitan area of Tennessee.) According to the [*Tennessean*](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2018/04/22/waffle-house-shooting-hero-stopped-shooter/540061002/), James Shaw Jr. is the father of a 4-year-old daughter named Brooklyn, and an electrician technician who works for AT&T. He was dining at a Waffle House after 3 a.m. early on Sunday when the gunman, who was wearing only a green jacket, started shooting customers with an AR-15 rifle. Shaw Jr. was unarmed, and initially hid in the Waffle House restroom's area. The gunman shot through the door, and Shaw Jr. was injured when a bullet grazed his arm. "I think that's when I became alert about the situation and was like, there's kind of no running from this. Kind of like a fish in a barrel type thing and I'm going to have to try to find some kind of flaw or a point in time where I can make this work for myself," Shaw Jr. explained on ["Good Morning America"](http://abcnews.go.com/US/News/man-wrestled-gun-shooter-die-work/story?id=54650267) on Monday morning. During a pause in gunfire, Shaw Jr. charged the shooter and grabbed the gun's barrel, burning his hand in the process. He wrestled the rifle away before the shooter fled, naked. "I was completely doing it just to save myself," Shaw Jr. told reporters at a news conference, the [BBC reported](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43862504). "I did save other people, but I don't want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that. I figured if I was going to die, he was gonna have to work for it." On Sunday night—technically the same day the shooting took place—Shaw Jr. created the [GoFundMe campaign](https://www.gofundme.com/5g07bvs) to help the Waffle House victims and their families. The fundraising page, which GoFundMe verified for Money as legitimate, says simply: > My name is James Shaw Jr. I am creating this page to help the families of the victims from the Shooting that took place at Waffle House in Antioch, TN. Please take the time to donate as all of the proceeds will be given to the families. Thank you again for your generosity and blessings! He originally set a fundraising goal of $15,000. By 9 a.m. ET on Monday morning, that goal had been reached. The total surpassed $16,000 by 9:30, and was nearly at $18,000 by 10 a.m. As of 3:30 p.m. it was over $32,000. At the original time of publication, a massive manhunt was underway to find the alleged Waffle House gunman, Travis Reinking. Police said that Reinking may have "mental issues," and that anyone who sees him should assume he is armed and dangerous. UPDATE: Police say that the suspected [Waffle House shooter was captured](https://time.com/5250489/waffle-house-shooting-suspect-travis-reinking-arrested/) on Monday afternoon. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/james-shaw-jr-waffle-house-hero/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Restaurants", "item": "https://money.com/restaurants/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "James Shaw Jr. Stopped the Waffle House Shooter. 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