"The wrong place at the wrong time," is how Randy Morrow, 48, recalls being one of nine people held hostage during a day-long siege at the Workers' Compensation Board building in Edmonton on Wednesday.

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," Morrow said in an interview with CBC News reporter Nola Keeler. "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."

Moments later, a shot was fired. Then Morrow came face to face with the gunman.

"He noticed I was crouched down in the other corner by the other exit," Morrow said. "And he lowered his rifle, and he pointed it my way.

"So I raised my hands and I literally just told him I don't know what to do."

"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."

A 10-hour drama

It was the beginning of a 10-hour drama for Morrow. He and eight others were herded into an elevator and walked to a conference room on the eighth floor of the building at gunpoint.

Like the gunman, Morrow is a client of the compensation board, recovering from a shoulder injury. This helped build a bond, Morrow said.

"I used everything that I could just to build a rapport with him. Even the cigarettes in the beginning, I think it helped."

Over the course of the day, hostages were released for health reasons or simply allowed to go to the washroom, from which they didn't return. Police negotiators also provided water, sandwiches and cigarettes, in exchange for the release of others being held. In the end, only Morrow and the gunman remained.

"We did have a handful of cigarettes there, and they were pretty much the clock," Morrow said. "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."

'Nobody was going to die today'

"I was going to exit first," Morrow said of the strategy that police and the gunman agreed to. "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."

Earlier, Morrow said, he had made the gunman a promise — "that I would walk out of here with him, and nobody was going to die today.

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

Randy Morrow has returned to his home in Peace River.

Patrick Clayton, 38, faces 18 charges, including nine counts of unlawful confinement and six counts of pointing a firearm.