This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 12:50 PM- A 59-year-old truck driver was sliced in the neck as he fought to get a gun away from a Utah prisoner who had dashed into an Arby's after the fatal shooting of a guard.
"I don't know where I got the strength," Eric Fullerton said. "I just knew I couldn't let go (of the gun) or I would be dead."
He was in line Monday morning when Curtis Allgier, a heavily tattooed man with a swastika on his forehead, ran into the restaurant with a gun.
About an hour earlier, Allgier shot corrections officer Stephen Anderson in the head with the guard's gun during a medical appointment at the University of Utah, police said.
At Arby's, Allgier, 27, told customers to get on the ground, then grabbed an employee and shouted, "Don't move or I'll shoot you," Fullerton said.
He had a "grin on his face the whole time, like he was enjoying it or having fun," the former Army paratrooper said. "No remorse whatsoever."
Allgier tried to shoot an Arby's employee but the weapon didn't fire, Salt Lake City police Det. Mark Knighton said.
Fullerton said he jumped the counter and succeeded in getting the gun out of Allgier's hands. During the struggle, the prisoner sliced his neck with a serrated knife.
Police stormed in moments later and captured Allgier as he hid in a manager's office.
"I just wanted a sandwich. I didn't go there for my morning workout," said Fullerton, who was not seriously injured but needed stitches.
Allgier remained in the Salt Lake County jail Wednesday awaiting charges in Anderson's death. Driving a stolen car after the shooting, he led police on a high-speed chase Monday before bailing out at Arby's.