'EWA BEACH — Police last night continued their investigation into the stabbing death of a man attacked inside or near his 'Ewa Beach townhouse apartment early in the day.

Officers on the scene yesterday morning confirmed that a man in his late 30s had died of multiple stab wounds but offered no other details. Blood-stained paper towels littered the porch outside the townhouse.

Police said officers responded to a complaint about an argument at the Palm Villas II apartment complex in 'Ewa By Gentry, 91-1060 Mikohu St., at about 6:18 a.m.

A stabbing victim was taken from an 'Ewa Beach address to Hawai'i Medical Center-West in critical condition, Emergency Medical Services spokesman Bryan Cheplic said. The man was pronounced dead at 7:20 a.m.

No arrests had been made last night, but police were looking for a white four-door Buick with custom rims and slight collision damage somewhere on the vehicle.

The male driver was described as standing 5-foot-10, with a stocky build and fair complexion, with short hair of unknown color.

Priscilla Olson, 25, and Jordan Clarke, 24, said they tried to comfort the victim as they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Clarke said the man was bleeding profusely from the several stab wounds he suffered, including cuts to the left side of his chest and a gash that appeared to run from his stomach to his back.

"He said he couldn't breathe," Olson said, adding that the man also mumbled to them that the incident had something to do with a cousin.

Olson and Clarke, who live in a unit that has a back porch facing the front door of the victim's unit, were awakened by the sound of their dogs barking and rushed outside to help the man, whom they said they had never seen before.

Adelina Cambe, 52, who lives in a townhouse next door to the man she identified as the victim, said she was shaken awake this morning by the sound of a door slamming.

She ran outside and saw her neighbor on the porch in front of his unit, bleeding badly from the stomach and crying out for help. Cambe said she also saw a person who appeared to be a woman walking away from the scene.

Tan Chang, 36, who lives next door to the victim, said he woke up when he heard struggling and other commotion coming from the bedroom on the other side of his wall.

He said he called 911 and looked outside, but did not see anything.

Chang said someone who lived in the unit a long time recently moved out and that he hadn't seen his new neighbor.

Cambe said she saw the man she described as the victim several times recently and that he appeared to live alone.

The stabbing is the city's 14th homicide this year.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.