Residents of the Kapiolani neighborhood awoke early this 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.”