SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Our Madison Hever spoke with the man that held the armed man outside the Walmart neighborhood market at gunpoint.

The man is a former firefighter and detained the armed man with his own firearm until police arrived.

The former firefighter has asked we keep his identity private.

He says he and his wife were shopping for groceries at the Walmart when the staff pulled the fire alarm.

“And I walked up to the grass and asked him if he was the male inside and he stated, ‘yes,’ and I drew my weapon, told him to put his hands in the air,” said the former firefighter. “He complied. He was compliant the whole time.

“He was videotaping on his phone, which was kind of odd, but he complied with my request that he keep his hands in the air and he asked me to come up there and take his weapon from him,” the former firefighter said. “I told him to keep his hands off of it and keep his hands in the air and when the police arrived that they would take his weapon.”

He said that he hoped that by stepping in, he prevented something horrible from happening.

“I’ve been in public safety for a long time and even though I’m no longer in public safety, I still feel that I can still protect people if I need to and that was my intention,” said the former firefighter. “Hopefully my actions prevented something like El Paso from happening.”