A felon who escaped from a South Carolina prison early Tuesday morning and barged into a woman’s home was fatally shot by the homeowner in what the local sheriff described as a “shining example” of why people should own guns and know how to use them.

The episode began around 2:35 a.m. on Tuesday when a pair of Pickens County Prison inmates hatched what Sheriff Rick Clark said was a “premeditated plan” to escape. While the authorities said they were still investigating exactly how the inmates got out of the prison, in the northwest corner of the state, Sheriff Clark said the inmates assaulted two detention officers in the process. By Tuesday night, the officers were “sore and a little bruised,” but resting at home with injuries that were not life threatening, the sheriff said.

Deputies responded, and one of the escapees, Timothy Dill, was taken into custody a short distance from the prison, in Pickens, S.C., Sheriff Clark said at a news conference on Tuesday. Mr. Dill, 32, now faces new charges including assault, escape and kidnapping.

In the meantime, the other fleeing inmate, Bruce W. McLaughlin Jr., 30, had kicked in the door of a nearby home and armed himself with a metal tool used for sharpening knives that he found in the kitchen, the sheriff said. The homeowner was there alone and Mr. McLaughlin approached her bedroom door, leaving her with no way to escape, the sheriff said.