ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A police officer in Albany, New York, shot and killed a man who was in the act of stabbing his mother, authorities said.

Officers investigating reports of a person with a weapon late Friday night heard a woman screaming behind the locked door of a home.

Police said the officers broke the front door's glass window and saw a woman lying at the bottom of a stairwell with stab wounds to her neck and face.

As they were trying to get into the building, the officers saw a man descending the stairs with a knife in his hand.

Police said the man ignored orders to drop the knife and began stabbing the woman again. Officer Elston Mackey fired several rounds through the window, killing the man.

The knife-wielding man was identified as 20-year-old Schuyler Lake.

The woman was Lake's 52-year-old mother, police said. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Officers searched the building and found another victim, Lake's 55-year-old uncle, who had with stab wounds to the abdomen. He was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Albany Police Chief Robert Sears praised the officers Saturday and said they "saved that woman's life last night."

More From WIBX 950