A South Carolina woman shot and killed an escaped inmate who broke into her home armed with an improvised weapon early Tuesday morning.

Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark said the woman acted in self-defense after shooting the man outside her bedroom door. The convicted felon got there after he and another inmate overpowered guards at the Pickens County Prison and fled. A short time later 30-year-old Bruce Webb McLaughlin Jr. broke down the back door of the woman’s home and grabbed a metal implement he took from the victim’s kitchen.

“The evidence at the scene confirms that the back door was kicked in and the escapee was near the homeowner’s bedroom door when he was shot,” Clark said in a press conference. “The evidence seems to suggest that the escapee had armed himself with a metal knife-sharpening tool. A pretty large sharpening tool.”

The woman inside the home, who Clark said had a valid concealed weapons permit but did not identify publicly, shot McLaughlin once in the head because she feared for her life.

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