A San Antonio Police Officer shot a man who was stabbing a woman outside the entrance to the emergency room at Downtown Baptist Hospital overnight, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Police say two officers were at the hospital getting a patient admitted when they heard a woman screaming.
They ran outside and saw a man stabbing the woman in the upper chest.
"They came out and heard the woman screaming, they looked and saw the man on top of her stabbing," Chief William McManus said. "They went to intervene, he came after tham, and one officer shot one time."
The suspect, a 25 year old man, is being treated for what is believed to be a non life threatening chest wound. The woman was not seriously hurt, and McManus was asked what kind of weapon the man was armed with.
"The weapon turned out to be a pencil," he said.
He said the woman 'thanked the officer for saving her life,' and he bristled at a question about whether the officer felt threatened by a man with a pencil.
"Did the officer feel threatened," McManus asked. "Officers only use deadly force when they fear that their life is in danger, or serious bodily injury could occur to them or to someone else,"
The officer, as is protocol, will be placed on desk duty while the police shooting team conducts an investigation.