James Shaw, Jr. - The Man who wrestled gun from Waffle House Shooter

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"I'm not a hero. I'm just a regular person," said James Shaw Jr., who police say saved lives by disarming a man who opened fire Sunday at a Waffle House in Tennessee. Shaw insists he acted only to save himself

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"I think anybody could've did what I did if they're just pushed in that kind of cage," Shaw said, "and you have to either react or you're going to, you know, fold."

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Shaw, 29, is the father of a young girl and lives in Nashville, according to his Facebook page. He attended Tennessee State University and works as a technician for AT&T.

On Sunday, he was asked if he had any sort of military training, and if he was surprised by what he'd done. "Yeah, I knew I had it in me. I haven't had any specific combat training," he said. "I just fight my daughter every night, so I can put her to bed."

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"I did that completely out of a selfish act. I was completely doing it just to save myself. Now, me doing that, I did save other people. But I don't want people to think that I was the Terminator, or Superman or anybody like that. It was just, I figured if I was going to die, he was going to have to work for it."

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When the shooting started, Shaw said he dived toward the bathroom. A bullet grazed his elbow — and he realized there was nowhere else for him to go. When Shaw saw the gunman point the barrel of his rifle down toward the ground, pausing to either reload or fix a jam, Shaw saw his chance.

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"In the bathroom, it's only one way in and one way out, and I was like, he's going to have to work for this kill — for me, personally. So I just got a head full of steam, and I ran through the door. And it worked out like I wanted it to," he said.

When asked if he had been scared, Shaw laughed and said, "Yes."

Shaw said he hit the gunman with the door. He then grabbed the rifle, burning the palm of his hand, and eventually wrestled it away. During their struggle, Shaw said, the attacker spoke to him.

"He was cursing me, because, you know, I was taking his gun from him. And then after I got the gun, he was just like — he acted like I was in the wrong," Shaw said. "And I was like, 'I'm just trying to live.' "

Shaw said that at the time, his own wounds and the gunman's strange appearance didn't matter.

"He was also naked, and that was the last thing on my mind," Shaw said. "I can walk away from a burned hand and a man's nudity. But a couple of bullet holes, you might not be able to walk away from that."

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