INSIDE EDITION speaks with the mother who found her worst nightmare while shopping at Walmart when a man held her child at knifepoint.
The mom at the center of that child hostage drama at Walmart is breaking her silence.
Alicia Keating told INSIDE EDITION, "I'm literally begging for my daughter's life. I start pleading with him. I couldn't take my eyes off the knife. I'm thinking, this man is going to kill my baby."
It started as a regular shopping trip for groceries at a Walmart outside Oklahoma City. Keating put her two-year-old daughter, Zoe on the shopping cart seat. Her 12-year-old daughter, Ashley was pushing the cart.
As Keating shopped for steaks, out of nowhere a crazed man grabbed Zoe and held a knife to her throat.
"I turned around and here's this huge man with my daughter in his arms and he has a knife pointing towards her," recalled Keating. "I panicked. I started screaming for help, saying, "Please help me! Help me! This man has my baby."
Any mom would be beside themselves, but Keating had special reason to be distraught.
"I said, 'I prayed for three years. I couldn't have children and the Lord gave her to me. Please don't hurt my baby,'" said Keating.
The knife-wielding man, identified as Sammie Wallace handed Keating his cell phone and told her to dial the number of a police officer he knew.
Keating explained, "I couldn't even see to dial the number, my hands were shaking so bad. I was scared to death."
Other shoppers called 911 and when cops got there they tried in vein to negotiate with Wallace.
"He wouldn't listen to them. He became more and more hostile and more and more angry," she said.
She was so distraught, she had to be taken away.
"It was the hardest thing to do was to leave my baby at the store. I'm pacing back and forth. I'm thinking, is my baby going to be alive, is my baby dead? It was every mother's worst nightmare."
At one point, police even gave Wallace a chair to sit down. But the hostage drama reached a critical moment when the lunatic starts counting down from 60. He said he would kill little Zoe when he reached zero.
Capt. David Huff had no choice. He pulled out his gun and took a point blank shot. Wallace was dead.
"I heard the gunshot and I thought, 'Oh my God, he just killed my baby,'" Keating said.
Thankfully, little Zoe was unhurt.
Keating descried the scene: "When they first brought her to me she was covered in blood. It's a sight I'll never, ever forget. I've never seen her cry like that before. She was so scared."
Keating's husband, Travis told INSIDE EDITION his big-hearted wife even feels sympathy for the crazed man.
Travis said, "After the detectives left, we were sitting there and she just started bawling. I figured it was because of the trauma, but she said, 'I can't believe that man died.'"
Today, life is back to normal for Zoe, giving this family even more reason to rejoice after what she experienced at Walmart.
"Whenever I watch her play, I've never been more thankful for my baby's life," said Keating.
