HOUSTON -- Police are searching for the gunman who opened fire on a northwest Houston hotel employee Tuesday morning.

Investigators believe the 6:29 a.m. shooting at the Baymont Inn on Highway 290 at 34th Street was the result of an argument between two men over a woman at a southwest Houston nightclub.

"The only thing I heard was that there was a shooting on the third floor," motel guest Carl Couser, from San Antonio, told KPRC Local 2.

A Louisiana man staying at the hotel who was taken into custody for questioning said three men from New Orleans knocked on the door of his third-floor room to confront him about a woman he had been with that night.

A sergeant with the Houston Police Department said the man called the front desk. The clerk ended up going to the third floor and was hit in the shoulder with a bullet fired by one of the three men from New Orleans.

The worker was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital - Texas Medical Center in fair condition.

Another hotel employee, who asked not to be identified, told KPRC Local 2 that he was concerned about the police department's response time. The first officer arrived at the hotel at 7:01 a.m., 32 minutes after the shooting happened.

The sergeant said he did not believe there was a slow response to the shots fired call because paramedics arrived shortly after 911 operators received the call.

The gunman escaped the scene before police arrived.

Police questioned the man from Louisiana but later released him.