LAVAL - With a 37-year-old man fighting for his life in hospital, questions are being raised about another shooting involving the Laval police.

Police say the man charged at them with a rifle and fired after barricading himself in his home in Duvernay all day Tuesday, but now the Sureté du Québec is not sure.

"Never, never in my life did I think he would do something like that," said Dawn Xavier, the victim's landlord. "I still can't believe what happened. I've known them five years.. in and out of our house.. in our backyard the pool."

Witnesses called police when they noticed a man perched on the balcony with a hunting rifle. Police say the man's wife and daughter fled moments earlier.

The man barricaded himself inside the home, the neighbourhood was evacuated and after hours of negotiation the man suddenly emerged, rifle in hand, and was shot by Laval's SWAT team.

"He came out of the operating room early (Wednesday) morning," said Benoit Richard of the SQ. "He is still in critical condition."

The SQ is trying to confirm the Laval police's version of events that the man fired his weapon before he was fired upon.

This is just the latest event where Laval police tactics have come into question.

In 2007, Basil Parasiris shot and killed Laval officer Daniel Tessier during a botched drug raid on his home in Brossard. Parasiris was found not guilty of murder.

Just days ago a coroner's report was released recommending better training for Laval police cadets in how to deal with violent confrontations.

The report focuses on the 2005 shooting of Laval officer Valerie Gignac, who was killed while attempting to kick down a suspect's door in response to a domestic disturbance.

The report also recommended to the provincial police academy to improve its training methods so graduates enter the job force better prepared to deal with such scenarios.

Jim Anderson, a teacher at John Abbott College's police technology program, agrees that police forces should do more to make sure their officers are better prepared, bt he's not sure they're willing to pay for it.

"One area where there should be really more concentration is the in-service training, but that's very expensive," Anderson said. "You have to pull people off line and replace the people you've pulled into the classroom. They do much more of that in the States and they do it better in the States than we do, quite frankly."