A Texas police officer is on administrative leave after shooting and killing a Texarkana man holding a metal spoon.

Texarkana Police responded early Monday morning to a report of an attempted break-in on the 2700 block of Paige Street. A caller said an unknown man was inside her garage and was trying to break a window to get inside her home, a local NBC affiliate reported.

The officer, whose name has not been released, arrived at the home and found 35-year-old Dennis Grigsby inside the woman’s dimly lit garage, police said.

Grigsby then allegedly made an “aggressive” move toward the officer while carrying a 7-inch metal object, which later turned out to be a spoon. Grigsby was shot once in the chest and later succumbed to his injuries at St. Michael’s Hospital.

“It appeared the suspect was holding an item, with the bowl of the spoon in his palm and the shank of the spoon coming out from the bottom of his hand like someone would hold a knife,” Sergeant Aaron Brower said, a local CBS affiliate reported.

The suspect’s mother, Evelyn Grigsby, said she and her son lived across the street from the home and that he had a mental illness. Grigsby’s stepfather, R. Robinson, she he did not pose a threat to anyone.

“He just wanted help and we couldn’t help him,” he told the station.

Grigsby’s body has reportedly been sent to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science for an autopsy. The Texas Rangers have been called in to investigate the incident.

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