Three people inside escaped injury after three shots were fired into the front of the Gowrie home, police said.

Officers were called to the Dalziel Street property after one of the residents reported the incident about 2.30am.

They discovered a bullet hole in the lounge room window which faced the road, but said no-one was struck by the shots.

Police released video footage of a gold-coloured Subaru WRX that was seen on the street at the time of the shooting and urged anyone who had seen it to come forward.

The footage showed the car as it drove past the house and shots were fired.

But police soon after abandoned their search for the vehicle after they confirmed that car had been found burning on Mountain Creek Road shortly after 9am on Monday.

The car was described as having a distinctive rear wing with registration YHN78S.

Firefighters had put out the car blaze and handed the incident to police to investigate.

ACT Policing believed the shooting was targeted, and not a random act.

"However, the motivations for this incident will form part of our investigation," a spokeswoman said.

Police also defended their delay in waiting until almost 12 hours before they publicly released details of the incident.

The spokeswoman said there was "no need" to alert the public to the incident any earlier because investigators believed it was a targeted attack.

"Police were following up on a number of enquiries and going out early on this may have jeopardised the investigation," she said.

Children were riding their bikes outside the house in the quiet street on Monday afternoon.

Numerous bullet holes and markings left by the police forensics team could be seen in the front window.

One neighbour said she hadn't heard the shots ring out, but her son had.

"He was up about 3am and heard something so he came out and heard yelling and screaming coming from the house.

"There's always a lot of trouble up there."

The woman said her husband noticed police officers taped off the front yard and scoured the street with a metal detector to look for spent bullet shells about midday.

"But then it all went back to normal, the kids are riding around."

Another neighbour, who also didn't hear the shots, said there were often disturbances at the house but he preferred to keep to himself as he had young children.

An ACT Policing spokeswoman said there were multiple suspects and police continued to investigate the incident.

Police confirmed the shooting was not linked to the seizure of a gun, ammunition and balaclava police found in a white van in the same street in July.

Drugs, firearms and heirloom jewellery believed to have been stolen during five separate burglaries earlier this year were seized from a house also on Dalziel Street less than a week later.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000 or act.crimestoppers.com.au.