A 24-year-old man is dead and his brother injured after a shooting near Chinatown late Saturday night, according to police.

No arrests have been made, and police are searching for witnesses.

At about 11:53 p.m., the two brothers approached a prostitute on Nu'uanu Avenue and Kukui Street, police said. The prostitute then ran away and the men were approached by an unknown number of suspects who had guns.

The gunmen fired several rounds at the two men as they ran south on Nu'uanu Avenue. One of them was fatally shot, the other escaped with injuries and was taken to The Queen's Medical Center. The gunmen fled the scene.

The man who was killed was identified by the medical examiner's office as Daniel Trulove, 24, of Honolulu.

Dolores Mollring, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board and the Downtown/Chinatown Citizen's Patrol, was home at her Kukui Plaza apartment when the shooting occurred. She was not aware that the loud sounds residents heard were gunshots until her daughter was coming home and called to tell her that Nu'uanu Avenue had been closed down by police.

"This is so disturbing because this is my front yard," Mollring said standing in front of her building yesterday. She said there has been an influx in prostitution in the area in the past couple of weeks.

Mollring said a security guard in her building reported hearing nine shots fired. She said she has lived in her apartment building since 1976 and had never heard of a shooting in her neighborhood.

"This is very out of character for Hawai'i. People don't carry guns here," she said.

Alan Chang, also a Kukui Plaza resident, said he has lived in the building for six years and shootings in the area are rare. In fact, this was the first time he could recall there being a shooting downtown.

"There is a lot of prostitution in this area. I've tried telling the police about it but nothing happens really," he said.

If found, the suspects face charges of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree-attempted murder, police said.

This is the second violent incident in a month involving prostitution in the area.

On June 5, police arrested a 32-year-old man for questioning about an alleged kidnapping and assault the previous day in downtown Honolulu.

A woman, 19, told police she was walking near a shopping center on Pali Highway at 4:40 a.m. when she was approached by a man who offered to pay her for sex. After she declined the offer, the woman said, the man punched her several times and forced her into his car. She escaped by jumping out the passenger-side window when he stopped for a red light.

The woman reported the attack to police, who arrested a suspect based on her description of his vehicle. Police said they found drugs and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle.

The woman was taken to The Queen's Medical Center with a possible broken jaw, police said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.