ALBANY — Albany police shot and killed a 20-year-old man as he was stabbing his mother in the face inside a city home late Friday night, Police Chief Robert Sears said Saturday.

Officers Elston Mackey and Derrick Ellis arrived at 61 Partridge St. at 11:30 p.m. Friday after getting a 911 call about someone with a weapon on the second floor. A woman could be heard screaming in the background, police said, but they gleaned little other information from the call.

When they arrived, a witness near the house told them that a woman who seemed to be injured was collapsed at the bottom of the stairs inside the house. The officers could see through the window a woman who was bleeding from her head, face and neck, Sears said. They called for an ambulance.

The door was locked and the house was difficult to gain entry to because of the thickness of the glass part of the door. As the officers were trying to get into the house, a man, later identified as 20-year-old Schuyler Lake, appeared at the top of the stairs with a knife in his hand. The officers ordered him to drop the knife as he descended the stairs but he ignored their commands and began stabbing the woman, Sears said.

Officer Mackey stuck his hand through the glass and fired off several rounds, hitting Lake, who died at the scene, Sears said.

The chief said the early stages of the investigations show the officers acted appropriately, calling the shooting "must and just."

"The actions of the officers saved that woman's life last night," Sears said at a 9 a.m. news conference on Saturday.

The 52-year-old stabbing victim is Lake's mother. Sears said a search of the home led to the discovery of another stabbing victim, Lake's 55-year-old uncle. Police have not released their names. Lake lived at the house, Sears said.

"There was no indication ... that anything like this would ever happen (at the home)," Sears said.

Lake is "not known to the Albany Police Department for having any criminal history or any other activity at all," he said.

The chief said police were wearing body cameras at the time but the recording would not be released now. An internal investigation is under way and the officers have been placed on administrative leave. Mackey and Ellis have both been with the department for two years.

Lake's uncle and mother were taken to the hospital and police were able to talk to the uncle before he was taken into treatment. Both were in critical but stable condition with a positive prognosis, Sears said. Mackey and Ellis were evaluated at local hospitals, a department policy after a police shooting, he said.

Sears declined to describe the knife Lake used and said he was waiting to be notified about an autopsy. Police are putting together a timeline of the events that led up to the shooting, he said. They spoke to witnesses on the street, he added.

Police remained at the home Saturday morning. A neighbor said her daughters heard the incident as it unfolded Friday night and said they thought they heard six gunshots. She added that she thought the people who lived at the home were new to the neighborhood. Another neighbor said he heard loud banging, likely from the officers trying to gain entry to the home, late Friday night.

miszler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5018 • @madisoniszler