A 23-year-old man was standing over a group of men lying in a parking lot, holding a semiautomatic pistol over them, when a Honolulu police officer rolled up in his patrol car.

The officer ordered the man to put the gun down, but he refused, according to police.

So the officer opened fire, critically wounding the man early yesterday morning.

The gunman had already fired at the men and had some of them pinned on the ground between two parked cars, said a source who has knowledge of the investigation but is not authorized to speak about it.

The gunman — and another man who fled the scene — allegedly had been terrorizing four men at about 5:40 a.m. yesterday in a Sheridan Street parking lot outside of the Little Seoul karaoke bar, Honolulu police Assistant Chief Kevin Lima said yesterday at a press conference.

The officer who arrived in the parking lot fired three times, hitting the suspect in the back.

If he hadn’t fired, the men on the ground "would have gotten killed," the source said. A second officer did not shoot because his line of fire was blocked by the first patrol car, the source said.

The unidentified, wounded suspect was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center in critical but stable condition, Lima said.

The wounded man had been hit "in the abdomen or lower abdomen," Lima said.

The man had not fired at either of the officers, Lima said.

The officer involved in the shooting, a 14-year veteran of the HPD, is on standard, three-day administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.

It was the state’s ninth law enforcement shooting — eight by the Honolulu Police Department — since March 2008.

Patrol officers were dispatched to a report of a fight at Keeaumoku and Rycroft streets yesterday morning but could find no evidence of a fight. Then they heard gunshots from nearby Sheridan Street, Lima said.

The first two officers who arrived in the parking lot told the man to put down his gun, Lima said.

"He did not comply, and it necessitated one officer to discharge his weapon," Lima said. "He did so several times and the suspect went down."

The 23-year-old allegedly had been shooting at the men and was joined by another man who may also have been assaulting the group, Lima said. Investigators were still trying yesterday to determine whether the original report of a fight was related to the parking lot assault and shooting, Lima said.

"Probably, but we don’t know for sure," Lima said. "We don’t know the reason why, or the motive why, they were being terrorized or shot at."

Lima said the man with the semiautomatic pistol "handled the weapon in a way that placed the officer at risk," adding, "The officer deemed the action of the suspect as a threat of deadly force and took appropriate action."

The man who fled the scene was described as Asian, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds with black hair.

At least two bullet holes were fired into the trunk and driver’s-side, rear quarter panel of a Toyota Camry parked in the lot that serves the Little Seoul karaoke bar, a tobacco store and bridal gown shop.

Lima said other vehicles in the parking lot also were hit. Police removed the damaged vehicles as evidence.