About a dozen officers, including the tactical support team, surrounded a North End Winnipeg home on Thursday morning. (CBC)Six people were taken into custody Thursday morning in Winnipeg after police were called to a confrontation involving firearms in the North End.

Resident Dale Dubowitz said it all began when he heard two people attempting to break into his car on Redwood Avenue just after 2 a.m.

He chased them, but when he turned a corner, he ran into a group of people associated with the would-be thieves.

Dubowitz, who told CBC News he works as a hunting guide, went back into his house and retrieved bear mace and a machete he uses for work. After heading back outside, Dubowitz said one person in the group fired a gun in his direction.

"The other gentleman came walking into the yard [and] lifts up his shirt. He ... pulls out a gun and points it at me and pulls the trigger twice," Dubowitz said.

Dubowitz sprayed the bear mace in the direction of the group and ran back inside his house and called police.

The people outside then began banging on his door and kicking at it. They retreated to a nearby house when the police sirens got louder and closer, Dubowitz said.

They left just as the deadbolt and door frame were about to give way, he said. The door itself is dented with shoe imprints.

Dubowitz said he's bewildered by what's happening in his neighbourhood.

"I'm stuck in a gang war here," Dubowitz said. "Where are these guys coming from?"

Several police cruisers, including the tactical support team, and about a dozen uniformed officers were on the scene in the 800 block of Redwood Avenue between Arlington Street and Sinclair Street from about 3:30 a.m. until 8 a.m.

Traffic was rerouted away from the area as police could be heard calling into the Redwood Ave. house to which the six individuals had retreated with a loudspeaker, telling people inside the residence to come out and blasting a siren.

Roads were reopened to traffic shortly after 8 a.m. after the six individuals were taken into custody.

Neighbours rattled by police intervention

Police spent nearly five hours outside this Redwood Avenue home where they were called about someone with a gun. (CBC)Carol Suzanski and her husband live a few doors down the street from the scene and were awoken by the commotion.

They went onto their back porch to see what was happening and walked into a cloud of bear mace, she said.

Shortly after, the tactical squad arrived and surrounded the house with the six individuals inside.

Several neighbours said the house is known to have a connection to street gangs and that there were teenagers hanging around the residence for several hours leading up to the incident.

Suzanski, who has a heart condition, said she and her husband were treated by paramedics, and her face is still swollen from the spray.

She saw Dubowitz being chased back to his house by some people who started throwing rocks at his truck.

Another woman, who didn't want her name used, said she went outside for a cigarette at about 6 a.m. and a police officer told her to get back into her home and shut her windows because there was someone with a gun on the street.

2nd incident at home in past week

Police said the house where the six individuals ended up is the same one officers visited last weekend after a teen who was shot in another location showed up there looking for help.

The 17-year-old boy was shot in Winnipeg's West Alexander neighbourhood on Saturday night. According to police, the teen was sitting in a car when another vehicle with several people pulled up.

The teen was assaulted before he managed to speed off. But as he was leaving the scene, several shots were fired at him, striking him in the upper body.

The victim drove to a residence in the 600 block of Pritchard Avenue and then to the residence on Redwood Avenue, police said.

Police were called to the Redwood home and found the teen, who was taken to hospital.