Winnipeg police say a man is dead and a police officer was sent to hospital in unstable condition, following a serious incident that closed off a residential street in The Maples.

At approximately 4 p.m. Saturday police said they responded to reports of a stabbing at a residence in the 100 block of Madrigal Close.

Police said they came across an altercation and a member of the tactical support team was stabbed in the upper arm by a suspect, a 33-year-old man.

Police said during the incident the man was shot by police. He was transported to hospital in critical condition and later died.

"Just to give you an idea of what happened, the officer was stabbed, and the individual was shot. That was a reaction to the stabbing," said Const. Jay Murray.

Murray said the officer's injury could be life-changing, and a tactical tourniquet was applied to the 35-year-old officer to stabilize it.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has been notified.

There have been three officer-involved shootings in Winnipeg in the past three months.

'Just sheer panic': witness

Helen Crane lives in the same block where the incident took place.

Crane said she called 911 after a boy came over and told her his brother had knives.

She said after police officers arrived on scene they tried kicking in the door to the boy's home, before hearing five gun shots.

"Just sheer panic, you know was going through my head. And I mean there was a lot of yelling and a lot of commotion and then more people were coming out of the house, so there were some smaller kids that were in the house when this happened, so that was pretty traumatic to think they were in there when this whole thing was going down," she said.

Crane said she saw a few people get taken away on a stretchers including a police officer.

“It really worries me that things can happen so quickly in an instant,” she said