Police tape blocks off the home on Jefferson Road where an RCMP officer's wife was found dead. (Andrea Huncar/CBC)

An RCMP constable has been arrested after his wife's body was found inside a home they shared in a southeast Edmonton neighbourhood.

Clifton Purvis, a spokesman with the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, said police were called to the house in the Jackson Heights district at about 4 a.m. MT Saturday with a report of shots being fired.

He refused to say how the unidentified woman might have died, but said it is being considered a homicide investigation.

Purvis said an autopsy would determine the cause of death.

He said the 36-year-old police officer, who has about seven or eight years of service with the RCMP, was arrested at around 5:30 a.m. at another location, though he wouldn't say where.

No charges have been laid. However, police say if charges are laid the Mountie will be suspended from duty until the case is resolved. If the woman's death is determined to be a homicide, he will be suspended without pay.

Police say the couple has two small children who were not in the home at the time and are now in the care of family members.

One neighbour told CBC News he often saw the couple fighting, but he believed the officer had moved out of the home some time ago.

Another neighbour said they woke up to screaming coming from inside the home sometime after 4 a.m. MT, followed by five gunshots.

With files from The Canadian Press