EL PASO, Texas -- Guadalupe Velasquez does not deny that on Thursday night her son, 31-year-old Efrain Velasquez, threatened his neighbor with a knife.

Velasquez also admits he did use that knife on a police officer, and as a result her son was shot by police.

"The bullet is still in his stomach,” Velasquez said.

While Velasquez accepts the fact that her son broke the law, she said the cutting of the officer and the shooting of her son could have been avoided

"Efrain has schizophrenia, and I told the policeman outside,” Velasquez said.

Velasquez said the police officers did not heed her warnings of her son's mental illness.

“You have to deal with a person like that,” Velasquez said. “You have to be calm talking to them, because if you talk or get mad with them or fight with them they can do anything, but the police ignored me completely.”

Velasquez said her son was hiding in a bedroom, police entered and her son eventually slashed the officer’s face.

"If you start telling a lot things to [a schizophrenic person] they don’t know what’s going on," Velasquez said.

Velasquez later found out her son had not been taking his medication for a week, causing him to hallucinate.

While she is glad the officer was not fatally wounded by her son, she believes officers could have taken their time in approaching him once she warned officers of his mental state.

Now Velasquez fears for her son’s future.

"I don't want my son in jail," Velasquez said.