( CNN ) At first police in Marana , Arizona , thought the shoplifted gun Mario Valencia held as he walked through a busy office park was locked and unable to fire . The cable through the lever and trigger could n't be taken off , an officer was told by an employee of the Walmart where Valencia took the gun and some rounds of ammunition . But just 10 seconds after the worker told police that ... a shot . Valencia had fired into the air , and less than a minute later a police car slammed into him in a move that ended a crime spree and sparked nationwide discussion on the officer 's unusual tactic . The 36-year-old Valencia was hospitalized and within a few days transferred to jail where he faces 15 charges , including shoplifting the .30-30 rifle . That February morning , police have said , Valencia committed several crimes in nearby Tucson before stealing a car and driving to the Walmart in Marana . There he went to the sporting goods department , asked to see a rifle , then told an employee he wanted the ammunition . Officer who drove into suspect justified , chief says . The woman told police she gave Valencia the rounds because he told her he would break the case with the bullets inside . He also told her not to do anything stupid . In spite of that she also said she did n't feel threatened , leading police to charge him with shoplifting and not armed robbery . Walmart told CNN 's Miguel Marquez that the store clerk acted appropriately , even using a code to alert security to call police . Valencia took the gun and ammo and fled into a nearby business park where he encountered an officer in a slow-moving patrol car . At one point he pointed the weapon at an officer and at another he pointed it at his head . The officer told him several times to put down the gun , police have said . The officers that were tailing him assumed that he likely could n't shoot anyone because of the store 's lock . Marana police on Thursday said the cable gun lock was still on the rifle when it was recovered . But the wire that goes through the trigger and the lever to reload the gun were loose enough to allow it to still be used , police said . It also should have been wrapped through the lever twice , not once , police said . A Walmart spokesman told CNN that the rifle had been properly locked and might have been affected by the hard blow caused by the police car . Valencia , who is in Pima County Jail , will appear in court again on May 18 .
Before he was slammed into by a police car , Mario Valencia fired a rifle with a loosened lock . He shoplifted the gun and ammo from a Walmart , where a saleswoman who showed him the weapon alerted security . Walmart says the lock was properly installed but police say it was loose when it was found .