FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A unarmed man who made threats to police officers was shot and wounded in a confrontation with them after they responded to a domestic violence call, police said Thursday.

Bill Evans, 38, of Fort Collins, was transported by ambulance to Poudre Valley Hospital, where he is listed in critical condition, police spokeswoman Rita Davis said.

The shooting occurred Wednesday night when two officers went to an apartment on the 300 block of Mathews Street after a woman called in to say that her friend was being hit with a chair.

No one answered a knock at the door, but the officers saw that the TV was on and heard noises in the back room. They also saw blood on a rag that was lying on the table below the open window, police said.

Officers identified themselves and Evans shouted at them to get back. He told the officers that he had a gun and would kill them, Davis said. The man told his girlfriend to get down and "moved towards the officers simulating actions of loading a gun and held his hands up as if he was taking aim at the officers," Davis said.

Officer Brian Ivers fired one shot at the suspect from outside the window but apparently the suspect was not hit.

Evans then told officers that he was reloading his gun and reiterated he was going to kill them, Davis said.

Officer Karen Spaulding then fired two shots and Ivers fired another shot as the suspect approached them pretending to point a gun at them.

The suspect was hit once in the abdominal area. The officers later saw that Evans did not have a weapon.

Ivers and Spaulding were not hurt during the confrontation. Evans' girlfriend was treated at PVH for a head wound received during the assault and released, Davis said.

The officers will be placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated. Ivers has been with the Fort Collins Police Department for approximately 10 years and Spaulding has been with the agency for nine years, four as a police officer.

Their accounts of what happened were corroborated by several witnesses, Davis said.