Residents of the Kapiolani neighborhood awoke early Saturday morning to sounds of a gunshot and cries for help.

Police are continuing to search for the gunman who shot and seriously injured a man in his 40s at a parking lot on the 1700 block of Kalakaua Avenue near the intersection of Kapiolani Boulevard near Club Rock-Za.

Police said the two men were having an argument when one man turned a gun on the other and shot him in the head.

Witnesses called police at about 5:30 a.m., and an ambulance transported the victim in serious condition to the Queen’s Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.

A dried pool of blood marked the spot behind a parked van where the man lay screaming for help.

Robert Hess said the victim is a man he knows only as "Prescott," who lived around the corner in a tent on Kalakaua Avenue.

Hess said Prescott recycles cans and bottles and described him as "friendly, nice, helps people out."

"He never deserved that," Hess said.

He learned from a mutual friend that police said Prescott "caught him (the shooter) snooping around his stuff."

Police have classified the case as an attempted murder.

The shooting frightened some residents on Kalauokalani Way, where there is a back entrance to the parking lot.

"Oh, my God, I sleeping. I heard, ‘Help! Help!’ I called police," said Eliazar Valades, 35, who awoke to the sound of a single gunshot. "My wife scared. My kid (6 years old), everybody scared."

Jackie Uahinui, 59, who lives on the second floor of a two-story walkup, said: "I had to make sure it was a gunshot and not a backfire. Then I heard a guy screaming, ‘Help me! Help me! Somebody call 911!’"

Her husband, Byron Uahinui, 63, said after his wife awakened him, he heard the cries for help, went out and saw one man run to help, as well as a young boy on a skateboard and a woman.

Despite the early hour, the sun was up and Uahinui saw police head mauka on Kalauokalani Way. He saw some officers running up the stairs of the building where Hawaiian Brian’s, a billiards and entertainment center, is located. Other officers ran toward Makaloa Street.

An employee at Hawaiian Brian’s said the place closes at 2 a.m., so no one was around at the time of the shooting.

Uahinui and her husband moved to the area in December.

The area is dangerous, with "kids graffiti-ing, the druggies and the homeless hanging out," she said. "We don’t go out at night at all, even to empty the rubbish."

She said worse things will happen "if the cops don’t start patrolling here at night."

As for the suspect, Uahinui said: "It’s kind of scary he’s on the loose. It’s broad daylight and the guy pulls out a gun. Sad part about it, the neighbors came out but nobody went to help the guy."