The man who died as a result of police gunfire in the Port Lands area is being described as a nice man with a history of mental health troubles.

"He was a nice guy. He was just sick," Magdalena Mazurek, a neighbour of Wieslaw Duda, told CTV News on Monday, adding he was schizophrenic.

"He was on pills, he was medicated always and he was harmless."

Neighbours near the home of Duda's mother in the Dixie Road/QEW area were upset by the police service's actions.

"It's terrible," said Irma Lill. "I just saw him yesterday afternoon just walking from the house to the car."

Bob Teppo added: "People are too quick to pull a gun when they are trained to disarm people like that."

However, CTV News reported the dead man was known to police.

Duda, a 50-year-old who lived with his son in Mississauga, came to police attention in the early morning hours when officers received a report of erratic driving on Queen Street East, CTV News has learned.

Police pursued a silver Nissan Sentra for a short distance, then called it off. They soon located the vehicle near Cherry and Commissioners streets.

It was at that location that the car allegedly struck one of the police officers at about 1:30 a.m. while trying to avoid a roadblock.

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which has taken responsibility for the case, was unable to say whether the officer was in a police cruiser when the collision occurred. After the collision, Duda was shot, it said.

Duda's autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

The officer walked into Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Meanwhile, the scene was blocked by yellow police tape. Inside that area, there were eight police cars and 44 yellow markers on the ground, many of which indicated shell casings. One of the police cruisers had a flat tire.

The Sentra appears to have hit two police cars. It has multiple bullet holes in its windshield. The back window appears to have been shot out.

Cherry Street remained closed between Commissioners and Polson streets while the SIU investigated, and Commissioners Street was closed between Cherry and Leslie streets in both directions.

The SIU has four investigators and three forensic investigators working on the case.

The SIU is an independent provincial body that is called in to investigate any serious injury, sexual assault or death involving police.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the SIU at 416-622-0748 or 1-800-787-8529.

With reports from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin and Naomi Parness