A mother and her son died and two police were seriously injured when officers were called to an altercation at an apartment in south-western Germany on Friday.
Prosecutors said the 56-year-old woman called police to the apartment in Kirchheim an der Weinstrasse, a small town near Mannheim, and told officers that her son, 25, was having a "psychotic episode," was on drugs and had attacked her.
The son used scissors to stab two officers, who then shot him dead.
Prosecutors said the mother also died.
Results of a forensic examination will not be released until the beginning of the new week, the prosecutor said.