SPOKANE -- Police confirmed Tuesday that the suicidal man deputies confronted in an officer-involved shooting in Spokane Valley last week was armed with an airsoft pistol.

The gun, officers say, looked real which is why they opened fire on the man who the Spokane Police Department identified Tuesday as 27-year-old David Glidden.

A search warrant indicates that Glidden was waving the gun and pointed it at the officers at one point, prompting them to open fire and shoot him. It's just such a scenario that Spokane County Sheriff's Sergeant Dave Reagan hypothesized last year when he said, “We're gonna end up killing somebody that displays an airsoft pistol.”

Last Friday Glidden, who was living in the basement of a home in the 4700 block of East Third, told his friend that he was suicidal and had a gun. His friend called 9-1-1 to alert police.

“Officers arrive, Glidden comes out of the house, has what appears to be a handgun and the officers fire,” Spokane Police Spokesperson Jennifer DeRuwe said.

Spokane County deputies Aaron Childress and Griffin Criswell were the first responding officers at the home. When Glidden waved the pistol at them Chidress and Criswell opened fire and Glidden was shot multiple times. It wasn't until after the shooting that they realized what looked like a real handgun turned out to be an airsoft replica.

“When they executed a search warrant at the home when all was said and done, they do locate what appeared to be a handgun. it looks like a replica of a handgun, a .45 and it looks like it was an airsoft gun,” DeRuwe said.

Meanwhile, the neighbor whose home was next to the one Glidden had been living in is looking for answers after his home was peppered when the deputies opened fire.

“It just doesn't make any sense to me, why he would discharge his shotgun into the side of the house,” Robin Ross said.

Ross lives next door and during the shooting a shotgun blast from one of the deputies ended up going through his wall, narrowly missing hitting his young grandson who was inside at the time

Officer DeRuwe deruwe says officers certainly have to be aware of where their bullets end up but that, “the guy who comes out with a gun, threatens officers, that's my imminent threat. I have got to stop that threat before I can then react to any other dangers that are going on.”

Ross says he doesn't care what happened that led to bullet holes in his wall with several people in his home but it shouldn't have happened.

David Glidden is now reportedly in serious but stable condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center. His friends say he may not walk again.