‘Don’t scream’: Hotel clerk’s chilling warning before ‘stabbing guest then driving off pier and drowning’
Aaron Tran allegedly showed a guest his phone with a message reading: ‘Don’t scream, I have a knife. If you scream, I’ll stab you’
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A San Diego hotel clerk is accused of going on a horror rampage, stabbing a guest in her hotel room before driving his car into a pier and drowning.
Aaron Tran, 23, had worked at The Shoal La Jolla Beach as a hotel clerk for the past six months, according to San Diego Police.
On Sunday night, police said he checked two women in their twenties from out of state into a room at the hotel.
Just a few hours later, at around midnight, Tran allegedly claimed he needed to enter the guests’ room to fix a water leak – a leak police said never existed.
One of the women opened the door and let the 23-year-old into their room while her friend was asleep, police said.
Once inside, Tran allegedly handed the woman his phone, showing her a chilling warning message.
“Don’t scream, I have a knife. If you scream, I’ll stab you,” it read, San Diego Police Lieutenant Paul Phillips told KNSD.
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.
Witness Gio Martinez told NBC San Diego that he saw the incident unfold whilst he was fishing with his family.
“At 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.”
Phillips said that the vehicle sunk 40 feet within just 10 minutes.
Around two hours later at 2.20am, divers pulled Tran’s body from the car.
The 23-year-old, who lived with his parents, had several stab wounds near his collarbone – with police saying at least one of which was self-inflicted.
The car was pulled from the water at around 5.30am and a pocket knife was found inside, police said.
The motive for the stabbing rampage remains unclear.