A hotel clerk in La Jolla, California went into a rampage over the weekend, threatening a guest inside her room and then stabbing her before driving his car off a pier.
The 23-year-old receptionist, Aaron Tran, had helped two women — both in their twenties — check into their room at the Shoal La Jolla Beach hotel before knocking on their door around midnight. He claimed he needed to fix a non-existent water leak.
While one of the guests was falling asleep, the other woman let him inside. But rather than inspect the water pipes, he handed her his phone and told her to read its horrifying message. "Don't scream, I have a knife. If you scream, I'll stab you," it warned, via The Independent.
But the woman did scream — and she fought back. And although she received a stab wound to her chest and other slashes to her body, she was still able to escape (along with her traveling partner) with non-life-threatening injuries. The other woman was not injured.
From The Independent:
Despite the warning, she fought back and the two women managed to escape the room and call police.
One of the women suffered a slashed arm, stab wounds to her upper chest and defensive wounds on her hands in the attack.
Tran allegedly fled the scene in his white Honda Accord.
At around 12.35am – 30 minutes after the women's 911 call – the suspect's vehicle was spotted by Harbor Police in the downtown area, speeding and doing donuts.
Tran then drove the vehicle off the pier at around 80mph.
The suspect, found dead, was pulled out of his submerged car two hours later. He had worked at the hotel for six months, and had no known criminal incidents before the attack. Investigators are still searching for a motive.
Previously: Hilton Hotel manager arrested for sucking guest's toes in Nashville
