KALIHI — Residents of the public housing complex in the 800 block of Waiakamilo Road said they were shocked and frightened yesterday following a brawl in a neighbor's yard Monday night that left one man dying and bleeding on the ground while his assailant fled.

"There were actually four guys fighting," said Tiane Garcia Liberato, 20, who lives directly across from the apartment where an argument began before spilling out into the yard and turning violent. "At first we thought he (the assailant) was punching him, because we didn't see the knife, and we went running toward them to say 'Stop! Stop!' "

That's when they noticed the knife, which witness Brian Molina, 16, said looked like a 7-inch kitchen knife.

"As soon as I turned the corner, I saw just saw the victim take two steps back, drop, and then all the blood," said Molina, pointing at a large, round stain still visible in grass and dirt.

While men, women and even children looked on, blood gushed from a wound in the victim's neck with every heartbeat, Liberato said.

She said the assailant and another man took off running while neighbors rushed in to try and stop the victim's bleeding and dial 911.

Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department, said paramedics were called to an apartment building at 831 Waiakamilo Road shortly after 10:30 p.m. to treat the injured man, who was taken to The Queen's Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office yesterday identified the victim as Otomar Muritok, 36, of Waipahu. The office said an autopsy will be performed today to determine the cause of death.

Honolulu police said a suspect believed to be the person who stabbed Muritok turned himself in to authorities yesterday.

"A 27-year-old male turned himself in at about 5:45 a.m.," said Honolulu Police Department spokesman Maj. Frank Fujii. "There was an argument that escalated into a confrontation, and the victim was stabbed.

"We think they (the suspect and the victim) knew each other."

Fujii said the suspect was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and that HPD homicide detectives are continuing their investigation.

Stunned members of Muritok's family gathered yesterday in the Waipahu apartment on Leowahine Street where the victim lived and tried to make sense of the tragedy.

"We don't know what to do because we weren't expecting it," said the victim's mother, Julie Muritok. "If he had been sick, then at least we would be ready — we know he's going. But this kind of death is such a sudden blow to us."

Surrounded by Otomar Muritok's brothers and sisters, she said her son, who worked at a Waikiki restaurant, was not the sort of person who should have come to such an end.

"We didn't expect him to be a victim like that because he's not a rough guy," she said. "He drinks, but he doesn't really go against anybody. He just tried to enjoy himself. I really don't know what happened — what initiated the attack."

Witnesses also said they didn't know what started the brawl. Muritok, they said, had visited the apartment where the fight took place before.

The men involved in the fight had apparently been drinking, and then began arguing, they said. Once the fighting broke out in the yard, there was a lot of loud shouting and commotion, and neighbors rushed out to see what was happening.

Kela Soares, 18, said her uncle was one of the people who tried to stop the bleeding in Muritok's neck.

"They were using blankets and towels and everything they could find," Soares said. "They were covered with blood themselves."

"It's a scary situation," added Liberato, who said she didn't know the people across from her apartment because they hadn't lived there long. But she said the stabbing had frightened her and her neighbors. The assailant, who also lived in the neighborhood, had seen them. She worried about retaliation, and was relieved to know the suspect had turned himself in.

"I haven't had any sleep," she said. "Nothing like this has ever happened here before."