In a bizarre series of events early Monday, a hotel desk clerk in La Jolla, California, stabbed a guest before he fled and drove his car off a pier, San Diego police said.
Police recovered the body of the suspect, Aaron Tran, 23, in San Diego Bay; he had self-inflicted wounds.
Tran had checked two guests into their room at The Shoal La Jolla Beach hotel and later called them, claiming he needed to enter their room because of a water leak next door, police said in a news release. Once he was inside, Tran handed his phone to one of the women, displaying a threatening message on the screen. When she looked up, he was holding a knife.
Tran stabbed her in the upper chest before she managed to escape with the other woman, who was unharmed. The injured woman was treated at a hospital and released.
Meanwhile, Tran had fled in a Honda Accord and was seen speeding through the streets before he drove off a pier and crashed into the water.
A witness to the crash, Gio Martinez, described the chaotic scene to NBC San Diego.
"Eighty miles an hour, they just went straight into the water. It did not stop," Martinez said. "That thing was, like, 10 feet away from my brother. Everything was crazy. Everything happened really fast."
Police told NBC San Diego that Tran most likely drowned while he remained in the car.
Tran had been working at the hotel for about six months and had no known criminal history. The motive for the attack is still unclear, and police confirmed Tuesday that the case remains under investigation.
