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Man Witnessed Waffle House Shooting From Parking Lot

Posted at 11:00 PM, Apr 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-23 00:00:50-04

A man said his desire to avoid the crowd inside Waffle House likely saved his life.

Chuck Cordero has been a regular at the Murfreesboro Pike location where the deadly mass shooting occurred early Sunday morning.

He said he arrived just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, but it was busy so he decided to wait in his truck for a short time.

And then he saw something he will likely never forget.

“This lunatic in a pickup pulled up. He got out with an assault rifle wearing only a jacket, nothing from the waist down,” Cordero said. “As soon as he started shooting inside, I dropped to the ground and started to crawl around my car because I didn't know if he was going to come after me.”

Cordero said the reason he stopped by the Waffle House on his break was to say hello to a cook he knew. That cook was one of the victims who was killed, 29-year-old Taurean Sanderlin.