BURKE COUNTY, NC (FOX 46 WJZY) — Jennifer Joloy says her husband, Jeffrey Jacobs was a sweet and loving man.

He was a father and grandfather, but after a domestic disturbance between the husband and wife, Jacobs was left dead—killed by a Burke Co. sheriff’s deputy.  

“He’s not the monster everybody is trying to make him out to be,” Joloy said.

With tears in her eyes she talked about her husband who was shot and killed Monday night.

“He was a sweet man, a loving man, he’d give anything in the world to anybody, a loving father, a loving husband, a devoted man who loved his family,” said Joloy.

But, it’s that same man who deputies say was found here around 7:00 p.m. Monday evening after they received a 911 call that he was being physical with his wife in the road while armed with a gun and knife.

“It was never loaded, he was not shooting the gun, he was not running up and down the roads with it or any of that. All that is fake,” Joloy said.

RELATED: Deputy shoots, kills man carrying ‘realistic-looking’ CO2 pistol

“The man was pointing the weapon at both the deputy and the female that was still outside when the deputy got there. After multiple warnings the male pointed and the weapon at the deputy and he fired one shot hitting the male,” said Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant.

Sheriff Whisenant admitted after the fact the gun was fake, but that wasn’t something you could tell in the moment.

“It was a CO2 pistol. If you had it in your hands you would not know. It looks just like a real weapon, it looks like a revolver. In fact, some of the officers didn’t know it wasn’t a real weapon even after viewing it,” he said.

Joloy is now left with a ‘what if,’ and wishing the deputy hadn’t killed the man she’s been with for more than a decade.

“In the end we loved each other. we been together 13 years and we were always on each other’s side. I understand the officer didn’t know the situation he was coming into and he panicked but there are other ways he could’ve done it than just to take his life. He could’ve tased him, shot him in the knee, shot him in the hand and now I have to go home and tell my son he’ll never see his dad again,” said Joloy.

That deputy is now on paid administrative leave and the Sheriff added this is the first deputy shooting in the six years he’s been in office.