CENTER TOWNSHIP — A naked man was shot by a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy early Wednesday after allegedly attacking law enforcement with a homemade spear.

According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, after a late Tuesday structure fire, authorities received a phone call just after midnight Wednesday from a woman who said a naked man in his 50s was pounding on her door along Ohio 255 in Center Township.

“She stated that the male keeps yelling that he was stabbed and wanted in. The Monroe County Deputies then responded back to the same area where the structure fire was located to search for the naked male subject,” Sheriff Charles Black Jr. stated in a release.

Previously, at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the sheriff’s office had responded to a structure fire on Holstein Road in Center Township along with the Antioch and Woodsfield fire departments. Once at the scene of the fire, deputies observed that the building did not have heat or any electricity. As a result, the fire is a suspected case of arson and the investigation was referred to the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Around midnight while sheriff’s deputies and the Woodsfield Police Department were searching for the naked individual, another resident from the same area called and said that someone was pounding on his door and had ripped the screen door to his residence.

Deputies responded to the second caller’s address but did not find the naked male.

Law enforcement continued to search the area and while at one of the nearby homes, deputies and officers attempted to make contact with a homeowner when a naked male subject allegedly “jumped up in an ambush attack with a homemade spear.”

“This subject immediately charged the officers with the homemade spear and came within a couple feet of the officers before the suspect was shot,” Black stated.

Law enforcement provided first aid and life saving techniques to the suspect until emergency medical service arrived on scene and transported the subject to a hospital.

The case was referred to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which will investigate the officer-involved shooting.

No other information was released Wednesday.