San Diego police said on Sunday they had shot and killed a man who had opened fire beside a pool at an apartment complex, while holding a beer in his other hand, wounding eight people.

San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman told an evening news conference the gunman was killed after pointing his weapon at police, who had responded to reports of shots being fired at an apartment complex in the wealthy enclave of La Jolla just after 6 p.m. local time (0100 GMT Monday).

Eight people were hit, Zimmerman said. Several were in critical condition and being treated in hospitals in the area.

The gunman was not identified and no motive was disclosed.

A resident of the apartment complex who witnessed part of the incident told television station KFMB-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, he saw several people who had been shot before the gunman was killed by police.

Media reported the shooting broke out at the La Jolla Crossroads Apartments in the University City section of San Diego.

The KFMB eyewitness, who identified himself only as a Crossroads resident named John, said he saw the suspect "sitting, drinking a beer in one hand with a gun out in the other" in the pool area of the apartment complex.

He said he and his wife, a nurse, saw "three people laying on the ground shot" and that he also saw one wounded victim trying to crawl to another to give assistance.

He said two police officers who arrived on the scene confronted the gunman, who exchanged gunfire with police before he was shot. The eyewitness also said some of the victims were taken away in cars to the hospital before fire department personnel or paramedics made it to the scene.