Kansas clerk tells story of allegedly being shot by Alex Deaton

Riley Juel had worked at the Kwik Shop about two months when he found himself in the back room of the business, shot in the abdomen and calling 911.

He had just met Alex Deaton, a Mississippi man who was wanted in a multi-state crime spree in which two people were already dead and three others shot.

"It was just a normal night, I was just in the back making donuts and when I heard the little bell go off, I thought it was just another customer," said Juel, a convenience store clerk in Pratt, Kansas. "I guess I was wrong there."

Deaton didn't do anything for a few moments, Juel said, but then he "calmly walked up and he pointed a gun at me and asked for my keys."

He told Juel he didn't want anything but the keys, Juel said. But then he says Deaton shot him anyway.

"I ran into the back because I didn’t feel like I got shot for like the first five seconds, then I had a burning sensation, then the pain set in," Juel said.

Using a cellphone he had in his pocket, Juel called 911.

"I told them I was an employee at Kwik Shop and I just got shot and they took my car. I gave them a description of my car," he said. Then he described Deaton to the operator as "A bald guy with heavy coat and kind of like a short kind of guy. But then I’m tall, so everyone’s kind of short to me."

Juel said that as he waited on the ambulance, he kept reminding himself to stay calm.

"I kept telling myself it's going to be OK as long as you stay calm," he said, though at one point he thought about the possibility that his wound could be life-threatening. "There was a moment like that, but mostly I was just thinking, 'Wow, I can’t believe I just got shot.' Then reality sets in real quick."

He had no idea until after surgery who it was that had come so close to taking his life. But reality set in quickly again once he learned who Alex Deaton was and what he was accused of having done.

"I couldn’t believe that. Hearing that I got away from a guy that (allegedly) did all that, it’s unbelievable,"Juel said.

Authorities arrested Deaton after he allegedly fled the store with Juel's car and wrecked it in a neighboring county.

Deaton's alleged spree started with the slaying of his girlfriend, Heather Robinson, a nurse, in her Rankin County apartment. He is then accused of shooting Brenda Pinter, 69, to death in the office of the Dixon Baptist Church in Neshoba County. Deaton then allegedly returned to Robinson's apartment, and as he fled there early Friday morning, police believe he shot a jogger. The woman was not fatally injured.

A national manhunt began in the wake of the deaths when authorities realized Deaton had left the area.

Deaton resurfaced near Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said he came out of the woods at the La Luz Trail head parking area with a shovel and a gun and allegedly forced a couple into the trunk of their 2001 Honda Civic. When they tried to escape, Deaton allegedly shot the man in the backside and the woman was grazed. After some further events, authorities say he wrecked the car he stole from the couple in Kansas as he ran from police, and he went into the Kwik Shop on foot.

That's where Juel came into the picture.

There was $30,000 in reward money allocated by Central Mississippi Crimestoppers, the FBI, Priority One Bank, and Rankin County for any information leading to Deaton's arrest. Juel's mother, Michelle Brozek, says she feels like her son should be eligible for that money since it was his description of the suspect and vehicle ultimately led police to Deaton. Under national Crimestoppers rules, though, the $2,500 offered by their organization is not available to Juel since he called 911 and not a Crimestoppers number.

"I definitely feel like the kid deserves something, but it's strictly the policies and procedures of Crimestoppers nationally," said Central Mississippi Crimestoppers tip coordinator Chuck Harrison. "Based on the circumstances and the policies we have to go by as far as Crimestoppers, he’s not eligible for our money, but I can’t speak on behalf of FBI, the Rankin County Board of Supervisors and Priority One."

The FBI is looking into it. Priority One did not returned calls for comment..

Harrison said more than 70 tips came in from coast to coast. People thought they saw Deaton everywhere from California to getting off the E-Train in Queens, New York.

"Unfortunately, had that not happened to him we might still be looking for Alex Deaton," Harrison said of Juel. "You have no reason to get up that morning and think something like that is going to happen to you. You happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you just happen to be an innocent victim when this guy decided to go crazy and shoot a bunch of people."

Rankin County Undersheriff Raymond Duke said at this point it's not clear if Juel could qualify for the money available through the county, but that they will look into it.

"We're thankful he's alive, absolutely," Duke said. "That could have ended so badly."

Juel seems fairly laid back about the cash angle, saying that, of course, it could help, but that he's just grateful for the help he's gotten from his coworkers and the public. He said he's also grateful for the fact nobody else was hurt with him.

"The crazy thing is I was shot 15 minutes before my manager and someone else were supposed to come in. I’m glad I was shot before they came in because he would have shot them, too," Juel said.

As for his feelings about Deaton, Juel does have a questions, though it's pretty simple.

"The only thing I want to know from him is if he was trying to kill me or if he was just trying to shoot me so I wouldn’t call 911. But I don’t think I’m going to be able to get that answer to that question," he said.

Contact Therese Apel  at 601-961-7236 or tapel@gannett.com . Follow her on Facebook  and Twitter .