Nashville Waffle House shooting: 'I'm no Superman', says customer who grabbed gun from nude suspect

'I made up my mind that if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me'

The "Waffle House Hero" who grabbed a gun from the nude killer of four people in Nashville has played down his action, insisting he was "no Superman or Terminator" as he relived the attack.

James Shaw, 29, was sitting at the counter of the 24-hour restaurant after a night out at a club when suspect Travis Reinking burst in and opened fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

Mr Shaw told reporters he initially thought the noise of gunshots was due to a stack of plates falling over before seeing other customers and staff fleeing in terror.

"I jumped and slid from the tabletop to the entrance of the door and I think he let off some shots through the glass," he said.

"When he proceeded to come in, I went behind the swivel door and he shot through that door and I'm pretty sure he grazed my arm.

"I made up my mind that if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me.

"When he reloaded, I ran through the swivel door and I hit him with the swivel door... got one hand on the gun, grabbed it from him and threw it on the countertop."

He was grazed by a bullet on his elbow during the struggle with the gunman and burned his right hand grabbing the barrel of the rifle.

Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, and Deebony Groves, 21, were shot dead at the 24-hour diner in the community of Antioch, Tennessee, at around 3.25am local time on Sunday. The fourth victim, Akilah Dasilva, 23, died in hospital. Four others were wounded.

Mr Reinking, who was wearing only a coat during the attack, fled the scene naked but is still being hunted by 80 police officers together with FBI and ATF agents and the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Mr Shaw, who set up a fundraising page to help the families of the victims, was praised for saving lives by police, Nashville Mayor David Briley and Waffle House president Walt Ehmer, who told him: 'You're my hero."

But the telecoms worker and father-of-four insisted he was just being "selfish" and added: "I was completely doing it just to save myself."

"I'm not a hero, I'm just a regular person," he said.

"I think anybody could have done what I did if they are pushed in that kind of cage.

"You have to either react, or you're going to fold, and I chose to react because I didn't see any other way of me living - and that's all I wanted to do."

He added: "I don't want people to think that I was the Terminator or Superman or anybody like that."

Mr Reinking, from Morton, Illinois, was arrested in July trying to cross a security barrier at the White House to meet Donald Trump.

After his arrest, his firearms licence was revoked and authorities seized four weapons including the same AR-15 rifle he used at the Waffle House.

The guns were later returned to Mr Reinking's father.

Mr Reinking, who is said to have suffered from delusions for two years, has previously claimed he was being stalked by singer Taylor Swift.

In May 2016 he told sheriff's deputies in Tazewell County, Illinois, that the star hacked his mobile phone and set up a meeting at a Dairy Queen before yelling at him and running away.

A month later Mr Reinking was seen putting an AR-15 rifle into his car boot before driving to a public pool in Tremont wearing only a pink house coat.

He then dived into a public pool in his underwear before exposing himself to a lifeguard to prove he was a man, according to police reports.

A month after his arrest outside the White House he claimed he was being watched and had been hearing people outside his home barking like dogs.

“The police reports speak for themselves. I think anyone can conclude after reading them that there’s evidence he has mental health issues,” Tazewell County Sheriff Bob Huston said at a news conference.

Police said Mr Reinking drove into the Waffle House parking lot in his gold Chevy Silverado pickup and sat there for about four minutes before opening fire outside the restaurant.

Mr Sanderlin, a Waffle House employee from Goodlettsville, and Mr Perez, from Nashville, were shot in the parking lot before Mr Reinking headed inside.

There he shot Ms Groves, a student at Nashville's Belmont University, and Mr Dasilva, a student, rap artist and music producer whose girlfriend Tia Waggoner, 21, was among the wounded.

Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said there was no clear motive for the attack and warned Mr Reinking may still be armed because authorities have not yet recovered a handgun he is known to have owned.

"He's on foot," said the police chief. "Unless he's been picked up by a car, he would be fairly close. We don't want to alarm people, but certainly, everybody should take precautions. It could be he's in an unoccupied house. We want everybody to be concerned. Neighbours should check on each other."

Mr Reinking, 29, was last seen on Sunday around a wooded area near a block of flats where he lived. He was believed to be wearing only trousers and no shirt or shoes.

AR-15 assault rifles were used in mass killings by Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz in February and Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock in October last year.

Associated Press contributed to this report