Waitress helped save Waffle House shooting survivor. His mom bought her wedding dress
A man who was inside an Antioch, Tenn., Waffle House on April 22 when a gunman stormed the restaurant and killed four people said his life may have been saved by the actions of a waitress that night.
“So many things happened that lead to my life being spared at the Waffle House that night,” wrote Michael Garth Sr. on Facebook. “This is the waitresses that asked Tre Swisha Sneed and I not to sit at the bar because she was washing dishes and didn’t want the water to splash on us,” he wrote, alongside a picture of a woman. “That (led) to us sitting where we sat and possibly saved our lives.”
In an earlier Facebook post, Garth Sr. recalled feeling “slightly frustrated” by not being able to sit where he wanted, but later came to believe it was “the 1st step in the hand of God leading us out of harms way.”
Garth Sr. wrote that his mother was able to track the waitress down, and when she found out she was about to get married, bought her a wedding dress.
Garth Sr. included a photo of the woman, who has not been named, wearing the dress.
Hundreds of people commented about Garth Sr.’s mother’s act of kindness and gratitude after a horrible experience.
Police say 29-year-old Travis Reinking stormed an Antioch, Tenn., Waffle House in the early morning on April 22, the Tennessean reported. Wearing nothing but a green jacket, Reinking is accused of using an AR-15 style rifle to spray bullets into the crowded restaurant, killing four people and injuring another four, before running naked into the woods, according to the paper.
James Shaw Jr., a customer at the restaurant, was widely lauded as a hero after he wrestled the rifle away from the gunman.
“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 told NPR.
Reinking was arrested after a 34-hour manhunt and is now charged with four counts of criminal homicide as well as four counts of attempted homicide and one count of using a firearm while committing a dangerous felony, according to The Tennessean.