SEMINOLE, Fla. — Two people were hospitalized after St. Petersburg’s police chief said a stabbing led to a shooting involving a Pinellas County deputy Monday evening.

“When you get that page and you first hear ‘an officer involved shooting,’ you’re worried about the officer, you’re worried about everything that’s there,” said Chief Anthony Holloway.

Holloway said because the shooting involved a Pinellas deputy, his department took the lead on the investigation as part of the partnership of the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force. 

Holloway said the call came in just after 6 p.m. about an armed person in the Tamarac by the Gulf community. A neighbor said that was shortly before she heard gunfire.

"I heard, like six or seven shots. I jumped up and ran to my husband and just said, 'Did you just hear that? Is that gunshots?' And he was like, 'I think so,'" said Alison Rodney, who lives near Tamarac by the Gulf. "Very scary. I mean, you wouldn't expect it in our neighborhood, but definitely not expect it in a community like this, because this is a 55-plus community that it happened in."

Holloway said those shots marked the end of a conflict just a few streets away on 95th Avenue North. According to him, a 44-year-old woman and her 70-year-old boyfriend had gotten into a fight, and the woman stabbed the man. The man reportedly went to a neighbor’s house for help, and the woman followed, trying to break into that home. That’s what Holloway said the deputy found when he responded to the scene. The chief said he repeatedly told her to drop the knife, but she instead came toward him with the knife raised. Holloway said the deputy then fired several rounds at her.

When asked if there were opportunities for the deputy to use less than lethal action, Holloway said that’s something the investigation will try to determine.

“The deputy’s getting a call that someone’s breaking into a home, the person is coming at him with a knife. He’s got a split second to make a decision on what he’s going to do,” Holloway said. 

The St. Petersburg Police Department said as of Monday night, both the man and woman were hospitalized — the man in stable condition, and the woman in critical condition. 

The chief said they’d been together for about a year and were both living in a home in Tamarac by the Gulf. He said there had been no prior calls to law enforcement regarding them. 

Holloway said the deputy involved has been with the sheriff’s office for three years.

The sheriff’s office said he’s been placed on paid administrative assignment pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard protocol.