A little boy from Tennessee decided he wanted to dress up as a hero from his neck of the woods for his school’s “Hero Day” this year, so he picked James Shaw, Jr., the man who stopped a shooting in a nearby Waffle House.
‘I Want Them to Look Up to You’: NBA Star Dwayne Wade’s Beautiful Surprise for Waffle House Hero
While most of his classmates were dressed as fictional superheroes, fifth grader Tayir Thomas decided he wanted to dress up as his “real hero.”
“I showed him the video of James Shaw, Jr., and we had a talk about the events that happened,” Britt Thomas, Tayir’s mother, told WZTV-TV. “He said he was brave and asked if he could be him.”
Shaw became a household name in April, after he successfully stopped a gunman from opening fire at the Waffle House in Antioch. When the man started shooting, Shaw jumped to action, grabbing the barrel of the attacker’s AR-15 rifle, which he threw behind the counter.
Without Shaw’s heroic action, police said at the time, the death toll would likely have been much higher.
‘He’s My Hero’: Alabama Dad Kills Gunman in McDonald’s Shootout
The four victims of the shooting were 21-year-old DeEbony Groves of Gallatin, 29-year-old Taurean Sanderlin of Goodlettsville, 20-year-old Joe Perez of Nashville and 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva of Antioch, according to The Tennesseean.
He wore it better than I did lol truly honored Young King Love https://t.co/P4RsK6FFBB
— James Shaw Jr. (@JamesShawJr9) October 27, 2018
In a tweet about Tayir’s costume, Shaw said he’s “truly honored.”