"I'm still sitting and grappling with the weight of realizing that it was kind of a life-or-death moment," said Julia Martell, who witnessed the stabbing, which wounded 11 people.

By the time an employee in the checkout area yelled about a man with a knife, it was too late. Nearly a dozen people had been stabbed at the busy Walmart in Traverse City, a tourist town on the shore of Lake Michigan,

Stabbing suspect Bradford James Gille was subdued within minutes with the help of bystanders, authorities said.