Stabbing Suspect Chased by Police Drives Off Navy Pier and Drowns in Bay

A front-desk clerk at a La Jolla hotel who allegedly wounded a guest with a knife early Monday during an assault at his workplace led police on a brief road chase a short time later before driving to his death into San Diego Bay.

The events that led to the traffic fatality began shortly after midnight, when 23-year-old Aaron Tran, an employee at the Shoal Hotel in the 6700 block of La Jolla Boulevard, phoned one of the rooms there and told the two women staying in it that he needed access to it due to a water leak next door, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Once inside the room, Tran walked with one of the guests to a bathroom and then allegedly showed her a note he had typed into his cellphone, reading: “Don’t scream. I have a knife and I will cut you. Put your hands behind your back.”

During an ensuing struggle, the victim was cut near her collarbone with the knife that Tran allegedly was wielding, SDPD Lt. Paul Phillips said. After breaking free, she and the other woman fled into an adjacent parking lot, where one of them made a 911 call.

When police arrived, the suspect was gone, Phillips said. Officers soon determined, however, that Tran drove a white Honda and were able to obtain its license plate number.

The information was broadcast citywide and at about 12:30 a.m. a member of the San Diego Harbor Police Department spotted the car passing through the area of Harbor Drive and Market Street and tried to pull the driver over.

Refusing to yield, the driver sped off, and the officer soon lost sight of the Honda. A short time later, the suspect drove onto Navy Pier on North Harbor Drive, according to police.

Witness Gil Martinez told OnSceneTV he was fishing on the pier alongside the USS Midway Museum with his brothers and a cousin when they heard the suspect doing “burn-outs and doughnuts” with his vehicle nearby. They then watched as the man drove onto the bayside structure at what appeared to be about 80 mph.

Missing the group by roughly 10 feet, the car sailed off the end of the pier and landed in the harbor, Martinez said. One of his brothers then called 911 as the vehicle sank, with the driver apparently making no attempt to get out during the minute or two it took for it to slip under the surface of the water.

“It was crazy,” Martinez said.

A lifeguard dive team was called in to help get the suspect and car out of the harbor, which had sunk in waters about 40 feet deep.

“Tran and his vehicle were eventually recovered from the bay,” Phillips said. “Tran was deceased and appeared to have self-inflicted injuries to his upper body.”

The victim of the hotel assault was treated at a hospital and released later in the day, the lieutenant said.

Updated at 4:36 p.m. July 8, 2024