One man is dead and another man is in custody after police were called to a dispute in progress at a Meadowlands Drive apartment building early Thursday morning, Ottawa police confirm.

The city's seventh homicide investigation of 2012 is now underway. Officers responded at about 3:30 a.m. to a lowrise apartment complex at 1189 Meadowlands Dr., near Fisher Avenue.

Sources told CBC News the victim and the suspect are roommates.

"Our patrol units responded to a … disturbance in progress. We are holding a scene at this point and investigators have been notified and are going to be coming down here to process the investigation," said Sgt. Anthony Skinner from the scene later Thursday morning.

Neighbour Allan Egan, who lives in the building, said he started hearing screams from another apartment somewhere above him at about 2 a.m.

"It sounded like someone screaming but it wasn't like your average scream, it wasn't like a domestic dispute-type thing. It sounded like a little bit more than that," Egan said. "I was a little concerned so I got up and moved to the other room. We heard banging, repetitively, every five, ten minutes or so. And I think it was the guy next to us trying to tell them to be quiet or something.

"The volume kept rising. They kept getting louder. They were screaming at each other," Egan said.

Egan said the Thursday morning incident marked the first time he'd seen police responding to the building since he moved in.

No other information on the police investigation was immediately available.