BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut man police say shot his girlfriend rather than pay her child support has been held on $500,000 bond.

Termane Smith, 40, of Naugatuck, was in court Wednesday to faces charges of first-degree assault, criminal possession of a gun and illegally firing a gun, The Connecticut Post reported.

Police said on Nov. 3, officers were called to the hospital after a woman came in with a gunshot wound in her left upper arm.

The victim said she had answered a knock at her apartment door and when she opened it, a man entered and shot her. She said she didn’t know the man.

In a subsequent interview with investigators, however, the woman said she had been shot by Smith, her former boyfriend, police said.

She told police when she talked to Smith about paying child support for their two children he “flipped out.”

Smith remains in custody. No defense attorney was listed in court records.