Two Vids. News Clip & Surveillance Video

Four Walmart employees took down an armed shoplifter last January, but the retail giant fired the workers for doing what they thought was right.

It took repeated government records requests — four of them — to obtain the video from Layton City. The former Walmart employees involved in the altercation saw the video for the first time Thursday.

Video of the Jan. 13 incident begins with the employees leading Trent Allen Longton into a security office. They said they saw him stuff a notepad computer under his clothes, and the video shows him take it out and set it on the desk.

But not long after he pulled out the laptop, Longton went for a gun in his pocket and made a move for the door.

"Time stopped. I didn't know what to do," said Gabe Stewart, one of the Walmart employees involved.The shoplifter jammed the gun into Stewart's back.
The gunman struggled with three workers against the wall, and had them worried.
"He looked right at me and said, ‘This gun is cocked. Come on guys, just let me go. I don't want to do this. I don't want to hurt anybody. Don't make me do this," said Shawn Ray, also one of the employees involved in the incident.
As they wrestled away from the wall, the video shows the workers have the gun isolated, but they're still trying to get control.
"I reached up and grabbed his wrist and his shoulder and spun him around," Ray said.
Co-worker Lori Poulsen then moved in and ripped the gun away from the struggling men.
"You have to make a decision," Poulsen said. "Do I fight for my life, or do I stand here and watch?"
The struggle eased up, and the employees hung on to Longton until the police arrived to handcuff him him a couple of minutes later.