DETROIT (WWJ) -  Detroit Police say an officer was forced to shoot a man brandishing a three foot-long sword.

It happened in a vacant lot next door to Scaffolding Inc. on McNichols Road at 6 Mile.  The business owner, Paul Mergentime, said he was out shoveling snow around 11 a.m. when he noticed a man walking down the street with a large sheath on his back.

That caught the attention of a Detroit Police unit, who quickly confronted the man.

"The policeman's got his gun drawn on this guy, and I kinda got out of the way for a second there, but I peeked around the corner. This guy's got a scimitar, one of those big, like, pirate swords. It had to have been three, four feet long.  That's what he had over his shoulder,"  Mergentime told WWJ's Marie Osborne.

"He was holding it there and the cops were (saying), 'Put it down, put it down.' He wouldn't do it. There had to be thirty, forty cops out here at one time," he said.

The officer fired one shot and the man suffered a non-life threatening wound.  He was taken to the hospital. 

State Police are assisting as the investigation continues.