We’ve often heard a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, but an incident in South Carolina this week proved that a good gal with a gun will do just as well.

An escaped inmate still wearing his orange prison jumpsuit was shot and killed after the man kicked down a woman’s door in the middle of the night, Fox affiliate WGHP reported.

The man, Bruce McLaughlin Jr., 30, armed himself with a knife-sharpening tool and went after the woman, who was hiding in her bedroom, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark told reporters during a news conference.

“The victim was trapped in her home, in her bedroom,” Clark said. “[She] was in fear for her life, she used lethal force to protect herself.”

When McLaughlin walked to the bedroom the woman, who lived alone, fired one shot, striking the escaped convict in the head — he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“This was a big guy,” Clark said. “If she hadn’t had a weapon there’s no telling what would have happened.

“I gave her a big hug,” the sheriff added. “I told her how proud I was of her.”

McLaughlin, who had a long criminal record, was awaiting trial on charges of first-degree burglary and grand larceny, My Fox 8 reported. He had escaped with another inmate awaiting trial for criminal sexual conduct with a minor — the second inmate was captured not far from the prison.

While an investigation into the shooting is underway, it is believed to be justified.

In noting that victim had recently obtained her concealed weapon permit, Clarke said the incident is a “shining example” of why firearms training is important.

“[S]he set herself up to be able to protect herself and not be harmed, killed or raped, or whatever,” he told reporters. “She came out on the good on this end and the other guy, the bad guy, didn’t.”

The sheriff also called the woman a “hero.”

“Very few people, even cops, go through situations like that, and she’s kind of a hero to us here today,” Clark said.