A man is in hospital tonight, shot by police around midnight in Newmarket after a violent altercation with officers.

Now the Special Investigations Unit has been called in to investigate.

Last night, York Regional Police got calls about a man walking around outside, firing a gun. That 48-year-old was rushed to hospital with serious injuries after being shot by police outside an apartment complex near where he was firing his gun.

Many people say they were woken up by the sound of gun shots and screaming.

“I heard one person yell,” says Melissa Shafa. “Then four gun shots right after – one after the other then right after that sirens, (a) helicopter.”

Rose Trautman says she heard one shot, then three shots right after.

Police say they received a 911 call shortly after midnight that a man was seen firing a gun at an apartment building near Davis Drive. When officers arrived they were confronted by a man armed with a hand gun.

“During that confrontation the man advanced on the officers and the officers had to discharge their fire arms and he was shot,” says Sgt. Clint Whitney with York Regional Police.

The SIU spent this morning assessing the scene. Its investigators are trying to determine whether the use of force by police was justified.

A black hand gun was seen on the road where the suspect was shot and police believe the man fired into an apartment building. Bullet holes can be seen in the windows of two separate apartments.

“There's the hole and there is another up there,” describes 88-year-old Gerry Sterling as she walks through her apartment.

She was asleep when two bullets crashed through her living room window.

“There were three terrific shots,” she says. “I just stayed in my bedroom.”

The bullets went through two panes of glass. Sterling says she's lucky it didn't happen during the day when she typically sits on the couch reading the newspaper by the very window the bullets pierced.

There were no injuries to police or residents at the apartment buildings.

The suspect remains in a Toronto hospital with serious injuries and police have yet to lay any charges against him.

The SIU has assigned five investigators and three forensic specialists to the case. York Regional Police are conducting a separate investigation and are trying to figure out why the man fired shots at the apartment building.