Updated

Prosecutors will not charge a Los Angeles man who was arrested for allegedly killing a man who was stabbing his girlfriend and her mother.

Prosecutors said Thursday that 29-year-old Diedree Edwards fired a handgun in self-defense and to save the women.

Police say Edwards heard screams on Tuesday from the parking lot of an apartment complex in southwest Los Angeles and found Rhett Wilkins attacking the women with a knife.

Deputy District Attorney David R. Lopez says Edwards grabbed the gun from the older woman's closet and fired three times at Wilkins.

Edwards then fled to a nearby apartment as police arrived and barricaded himself for several hours. He surrendered after police threw tear gas canisters through his window.

Lopez says Edwards had been staying with the women because they had been threatened by Wilkins, the older woman's former boyfriend.