JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A man died late Saturday after what police described as an exchange of gunfire with two undercover narcotics officers just off Philips Highway in the South Metro area.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the detectives had been working undercover for about three hours in the 2300 block of Westmont Street when a man approached them with a gun just before 6 p.m. The officers said they identified themselves as police and ordered the suspect to put down the gun.

Witnesses said that the man refused to drop his gun and gunshots were exchanged. The man was shot several times.

"The man came out three times and was like, 'Why are you not moving out of my yard,'" a resident told Channel 4's Jennifer Bauer. "So after the third time that dude came out of the house, he came with a .357 and started shooting at the individuals, which were the undercover police. They started shooting back at him."

Police said he died later at Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center. The name of the man was not released Saturday night.

Neighbors told Channel 4 that the victim was an elderly man who was very protective of his property.

"You don't expect somebody to come pointing a gun at you, and once they do that, the officers will tell them to drop the gun," JSO Chief Dwain Senterfitt said. "We're still investigating what statements were made, but obviously, at that point, the officers' lives were in danger."

The two officers took cover behind a tree -- which took at least one bullet -- and were not injured.

The detectives were placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure while a police-involved shooting is investigated.

This is the third fatal police-involved shooting in three weeks. Last Saturday evening, Douglas Woods was shot and killed by an undercover JSO narcotics officer who said Woods tried to rob him at the Sabal Palms Apartments on Emerson Street.

"If look at them, all three of these were people brandishing firearms, either shooting at or attempting to shoot at police, and police respond like they are trained to do," Senterfitt said.