She says 21-year-old Jeffrey Deavers appeared out of no where.
"This kid was like right there in my face with a gun and we ended up fighting all the way to the floor," Adkins said. "And, anyhow, when he pulled out the knife, he told me he was going to stab me with it if I didn't quit fighting him."
Deavers managed to pull Adkins to a back room. At one point sher was able to get her hands on this gun.
"But he laid the gun next to my hand, and when he did, I fired in front of me but it didn't go off," Adkins said. "Cause I figured if I fired in front of me, it would scare him a little and I could turn and fire on him."
But the gun wasn't real.
"I told him, 'What are you going to do? You have a toy gun. When the police come in with real ones,'" she said. "That's when he told me it was a BB gun."
That's when the suspect made a startling confession.
"He wanted me to call the police and tell them to come down here and kill him," Adkins said. "I can't remember if it was his baby sister or baby brother had just died. And God took this baby from him and he wanted to die."
Deavers was released about 11:30 p.m. Police pulled her to safety. Fifteen minutes later the emergency response team used two lash bombs, stormed the store and took Deavers into custody without incident.
"I did ask him why he didn't kill himself and he said, 'It's religion. You know, it's a sin to do this.' And he needed the police to do it for him," Adkins said. "But I do believe if I had locked that door and let him have my keys, that kid wouldn't be alive today."
