Two Albany Police officers who maintained they had to shoot and kill a man who was attacking his mother were cleared by a grand jury and hailed as heroes by the district attorney.

In June, Officers Derrick Ellis and Elston Mackey, responding to Partridge Street a call for a man with a weapon, saw a woman bleeding while lying on the bottom of a staircase.

While they were trying to get to the woman through the front door, police say Schuyler Lake came down the stairs with a knife. Despite commands to stop, the 20-year-old Lake began attacking his mom. 

Lake was shot and died at the scene. His uncle was then found upstairs, stabbed in the abdomen. Lake's mother had stab wounds to her face and neck.

"Domestic violence, people think of it oftentimes as boyfriend and girlfriend, or between husband and wife. There are people out there, mothers and sons, family members who experience domestic violence on a daily basis. And it's everyone involved. So if you hear something, you really need to say something," Soares said.