When a gunman entered the Workers' Compensation Board building in Edmonton at about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, he took nine people into a room on the eighth floor of the building at gunpoint. Randy Morrow, 48, of Peace River, Alta., was one of those hostages. Here is his story, as told to CBC reporter Nola Keeler.

Randy Morrow, 48, says he developed a relationship with the gunman during a 10-hour hostage incident at the Workers' Compensation Board in Edmonton. (CBC)

I was just sitting there in the reception area waiting for my appointment when he came through the doors. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hollering. He was yelling a lot of commands, so I got up and peeked around the corner, and I [saw] the rifle, and I ducked back behind the corner and waited for a bit.

He managed to get himself, I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but the doors were open, the security doors somehow got opened, and there was some screaming going on. I noticed the girls behind the wicket in the room that I was in, they were, they backed off and they got out through a door behind the counter and I thought that would be my escape, too.

'We made eye contact'

At that point, he was through, he was through the security door on the other side and that's when I heard the first shot I sincerely thought that was just No. 1, and as I decided to flee at that point I was going for that door the girls had earlier exited through and when I made my bolt, he was coming back through the security door and we made eye contact, and I kept going. By the time I got to the door, I realized it was another security door, a swipe lock door, and the light was red. And I was kind of hooped. He was coming and I had nowhere to go.

He sees there's a corner office there, I believe the gentleman inside it drew the blinds, turned the light off and locked the door and when he got to that door, he noticed it was locked and then he noticed I was crouched down in the other corner by the other exit, and he lowered his rifle and he pointed it my way, and I fully expected to be No. 2 at that point. I really did think I was No. 2.

And there was too long of a pause before, there was no noise, there was no bang. So I raised my hands, and I literally just told him I don't know what to do.

A police officer stands guard near the Workers' Compensation Board building in downtown Edmonton. (CBC)He looked away, and the barrel moved away from me. Then he started yelling his demands, and told me to go in this direction and then we got a few paces and then he asked me, oddly enough, if I had a cigarette. And I said, heck yes, I've got a cigarette, and I did. I gave him a cigarette, gave him my lighter, he gave them back and said thank you, and then proceeded to flip out and start waving the barrel around again.

At this point, I'm on the floor. I threw my jacket on the floor. I wanted to make myself as non-threatening as I could, so I was on the floor giving him this cigarette. And he, he started up again, after he had this cigarette in his mouth he kind of went back psycho, and I got ahead of him, ended up at the elevator with a group of other people that ended up eventually staying with me in that room.

It's funny what you do think of. I'm 48 years old, and I was telling myself I have to grow up, right now.

'I was waving them down'

When we exited the elevator on the eighth floor, the expressions I was, I was kind of working the point, and I was trying to get people's attentions to get down. I was waving them down. They could see the gun behind me, and just the expressions and the reactions I thought were, they weren't quick enough.

I just went through the same thing I couldn't believe it was happening either.

Edmonton police tactical squad discuss strategy during the hostage-taking incident. (Jimmy Jeong/Canadian Press)We filed into the room, and a majority of them took a position on the opposite side of the table from him. I stayed on that side of the table with him. I was at the end of the line. I never took my eyes off the rifle the whole time, for the first two hours.

He had thrown some ropes on the table, he had thrown his backpack on the table, he unloaded all his ammunition. He told everybody to tie one hand to the chair.

'I could associate with him'

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But later on it did, it did help. Me being a client with a problem, an injury, and I could associate with him. I used everything that I could just to build a rapport with him. Even the cigarettes in the beginning, I think it helped.

I thought it was odd, because he threw a paring knife on the table with the ropes and he wasn't threatened by that knife at all, being out there amongst us. He wanted us to cut the rope, just to make sure we had enough rope. It never did, I don't think, get used. And the ropes themselves eventually just fell off the chairs. He never checked whether they were secured or not.

I'm not sure if the introductions were starting at that time. No, I don't think so. Everybody was pretty much panicking at that point. Everybody was still in shock and panicking. There was a lot sobbing going on.

'I'm focused on the gun'

At this particular point, I'm focused on the gun. I really didn't pay too much attention to anyone else in the room, I wanted to be as close to him as possible. If things went from bad to worse, at least I was going to have an attempt. I'm somewhat disabled, too, and there's a lot of considerations to be taken in the circumstances, and I don't believe he reloaded the gun after his first shot. So I know there's only two bullets left in that rifle.

I'm going to call her Mama K, and I believe she was supervision on that floor, perhaps management. She started to talk to him, and she actually got his attention, and I think for me that really changed, I reassessed the whole situation at that point.

And then I noticed things. I noticed how he was handling the rifle. When he panned the rifle through the room, he would raise or lower the barrel when it would come across anybody in the room. Little odd things like that. And I believe that was about 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock. And so we went with that.

'Negotiation on the inside'

I believe that me and Mama K there had an understanding. So we started working with the conversation, we were doing our own negotiation on the inside. We heard the whole story and we got to know Mr. Clayton quite well that day.

He obviously knew how to handle a firearm and through the whole time, there was a great deal of remorse in his voice, a lot of guilt. He apologized a great deal, and then at that I point I really felt that we all really had a good chance of walking out of there.

Sean, the first one to leave, had a heart condition, and he was suffering some symptoms. And he was convinced, we convinced him that he should be the first to go. You know nobody's hurt yet, at this point.

There was no washroom facility in that room, and there were pee breaks. And Mama K was the first to go. Well, not the first to go, but she did return. Which I thought was odd. I expected everybody that went through that door not to be coming back, and she was the one. She was the second-last person there with me to the end.

Patrick Charles Clayton, 38, faces 18 charges, including nine counts of unlawful confinement and six counts of pointing a firearm. (Courtesy of the Edmonton Journal)I was pleased. She was my crutch through the whole thing.

She was sincere, she truly believed, too, that we could all walk out of there, including Pat.

With the water and the sandwiches and the cigarettes, nothing came through that door without anybody coming out. And that was their tactic, and that was what they were trying to accomplish was to get as many people out, and it was working.

“With the water and the sandwiches and the cigarettes, nothing came through that door without anybody coming out. And that was their tactic, and that was what they were trying to accomplish was to get as many people out, and it was working.”

“We did have a handful of cigarettes there, and they were pretty much the clock. The cigarettes were the clock at that point, and when the last one was done, I was hoping he was going to keep his word and walk out with me.”

“I was going to exit first, they knew I had a bad shoulder and Pat had a bad knee, but they were really worried how it was going to end too. He was to leave the rifle on the table, and when I turned my back and walked out, I kept my ear on that rifle”

“Just before we left, I gave him a big hug. I just wanted to make sure I could keep walking, get the hell out of there.”

At 6:18 p.m. Wednesday, the hostage taker surrendered peacefully to police. By the end of the 10-hour standoff, all nine hostages, including Randy Morrow, had been released unharmed.