A man who was being evicted from his northeast St. Petersburg home set the home on fire, threatened officers with a gun, and was shot and wounded by officers early Sunday, police said.

The incident began about 12:33 a.m. when firefighters responded to a fire at 494 44th Avenue N. As crews began to extinguish a large blaze, a neighbor reported a man who lives at the house standing in her backyard holding a gun.

Officers responded to the scene, cordoned off the area and attempted to communicate with the man, later identified as Paul Allen Sibley, 69. But Sibley fired at the officers, who then pulled back and established a perimeter around the home, police said.

"After a while, I saw him pacing and I decided to move back,' neighbor Joel Feinberg said.

A SWAT team arrived and tried to communicate with Sibley in the alley behind the neighbor's home. Around 3:15 a.m., Sibley again threatened officers with a gun, and officers shot him, police said.

Sibley was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to a local hospital in fair condition. He has since been released and taken to the Pinellas County Jail. Sibley was charged with two counts of attempted first degree muder of a law enforcement officer, two counts of aggrivated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of first degree arson.

Police said it appears Sibley had been notified he was being evicted from the home and, in response, set the home on fire. He then took up a position in the neighbor's yard while armed with a semiautomatic gun and several containers of ammunition.

Sibley also left a note on a car parked in front the burning home indicating there were explosives inside, although none were found after the fire was extinguished, police said.

Neighbor Michael Burnett said he has known Sibley for six years and that he's like an uncle to his daughters, but Burnett noted that Sibley has been down on his luck lately.

"Any time, if you didn't have a vehicle or and you needed a ride to work or something, he would jump up - I mean, at 5 o'clock in the morning - and take you to work if you needed it," Burnett said. "I know the situation that happened with the man, but it still surprises me that he would go to that extreme because there's always hope."

Three officers discharged their weapons and will be placed on administrative leave pending a review of the shooting, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. The officers are Bradley Bryan, 48, sworn officer since 1991, Robert Peters, 42, sworn officer since 2007 and Matthew Hansell, 41, sworn officer since 2006.

The officers will be placed on administrative duty pending a preliminary review of the shooting.

Interim St. Petersburg Police Chief David DeKay said the SWAT team members and hostage negotiators "performed with great bravery and professionalism in a very difficult and dangerous situation."