FENTON, Mo. (AP) – A Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy has shot a suspect who reached for another deputy’s gun.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/1MItW8S ) the man was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition.

Sheriff Oliver “Glenn” Boyer says deputies went to the man’s home around 8 p.m. Monday for a reported disturbance. The man’s mother had called police, saying her son was suicidal and attempting to strike her.

Boyer says deputies found the man with a knife at the home and persuaded him to surrender it.

Officials say a physical struggle broke out when the officers tried to take him into custody for a mental evaluation at a hospital. The man grabbed a deputy’s gun, and it went off. Another deputy shot the man.