Ottawa police say an attempted murder in the city's west end is linked to a police shooting along Highway 417 that left a man critically injured Wednesday evening.

At about 5:45 p.m., police responded to a 911 call at a home on Bearhill Road where a 65-year-old man was suffering from several gunshot wounds. He is currently in stable condition in hospital.

A neighbour told CTV Ottawa he learned of the attempted murder when the male victim stumbled into his backyard.

"He was full of blood," said Jean-Claude Hubert, who has lived next door to Rainer Elsner for 13 years.

"I just saw him running over and hear him sobbing. I just rushed up and said: 'What happened?' And he said, 'I've been shot.'"

Hubert said Elsner told him he knew the gunman.

After arriving at the scene, police say a description of the suspect and his vehicle was sent to all patrol officers on duty.

At about 6 p.m., police say a vehicle matching the description was spotted travelling eastbound on Highway 417 near Parkdale Avenue.

When the driver refused to pull over for police, a brief pursuit followed until the vehicle finally came to a stop near the Walkley Road exit of the highway. The driver then attempted to flee on foot.

"Three officers interacted with a man who got out of the car and during this interaction an officer fired at least one shot and the man was struck," said Frank Phillips of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which is called in to investigate whenever police are involved in incidents involving the public that result in death or serious injury.

The male victim is currently in critical condition at the Ottawa Hospital's civic campus.

At midday, Phillips said it was unclear whether the man fired shots at the officers as well.

"That's part of our investigation," he said.

"We have four investigators there and three forensic investigators and this is going to form part of our investigation as to what happened."

Highway 417 was closed in the area near Russell Road for about 14 hours while investigators combed the scene.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Jamie Long