California hotel worker stabs guest in chest before driving car off pier to his death

Police said a 23-year-old hotel receptionist stabbed a female guest before he fled and drove his car off a pier, killing him in the process.

Aaron Tran, 23, drove off a pier in San Diego after he allegedly stabbed a woman at a hotel.

Aaron Tran, 23, drove off a pier in San Diego after he allegedly stabbed a woman at a hotel. (Image: CBS 8 San Diego)

In a strange turn of events, a hotel receptionist stabbed a woman in the chest at her California hotel room before fleeing and driving his car off a pier.

He drove to his death into the ocean, where his body was later recovered.

The suspect, identified as 23-year-old Aaron Tran, was found dead early Monday morning with multiple stab wounds, believed to be self-inflicted, after police recovered his body out of the waters of the San Diego Bay.

Tran worked as a receptionist at the Shoal La Jolla Beach hotel at La Jolla - a coastal town about 14 miles northwest of San Diego - for about six months, according to San Diego police.

The incident happened shortly after midnight on Monday, when Tran had checked two female guests - both of whom are in their 20s and was visiting California - into their hotel room.

At one point during the night, the suspect called them from the hotel lobby and told them he needed to enter their room to address a water leak next door.

The suspect worked at the Shoal Hotel in La Jolla, California, for about six months.

The suspect worked at the Shoal Hotel in La Jolla, California, for about six months. (Image: Google Maps)

There was no water leak in any of the rooms next door, according to police.

One of the women who had previously recognized the suspect as the receptionist who checked them in earlier that night, allowed him to enter the room, while the other was asleep.

When the suspect entered the room, he handed his phone over to the woman displaying a threatening message on the screen that read, "Don't scream, I have a knife. If you scream, I'll stab you."

When the woman looked up, the suspect was holding a knife. The woman screamed right away, prompting the suspect to stab her in the upper chest.

The woman managed to fight him off and escape with her roomate during the struggle.

The injured women had been taken to a hospital for treatment of the stab wound and was later released, while the other woman was unharmed during the incident, according to police.

Police said that Tran fled the hotel in a white Honda Accord and was seen speeding through the streets before driving off the Navy Pier and crashing into the San Diego Bay.

A witness told NBC San Diego that he saw the chaotic unfolded which ended with the vehicle fully submerged into the water.

"We heard the car doing burnouts, donuts down the street and Downtown by the buildings over there and we heard it gassing into the parking lot," the witness, who was fishing with his family around the corner of the pier at the time, told the outlet.

"We thought they were gonna come in here and do donuts too, but instead like 80 miles an hour, they just went straight into the water. It did not stop. There was no brakes," he continued.

"That thing was like 10 feet away from my brother. Everything was crazy. Everything happened really fast."

Police said that it was likely that Tran had drowned while staying in the car, which fully submerged within minutes.

When authorities recovered the body from the Honda Accord, which had reportedly submerged about 40 feet underwater, they noticed that Tran appeared to have multiple stab wounds around his collarbone, NBC San Diego reported.

It is not immediately clear how was the suspect injured or what was the motive for the attack at the hotel.

What made it more bizarre to the police is the fact that Tran appeared to have no known criminal history prior to the attack.

Police said the incident is still under investigation.

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