Caught On Tape: Md. Hotel Bar Worker Fatally Shot During Robbery

OXON HILL, Md. (WJZ) -- Police are searching for the brazen criminal who stormed into a Maryland hotel, threatened a pregnant clerk, then shot and killed another employee. Surveillance video captured some of the frightening confrontation.

Kai Jackson has more on the case.

Police are looking for a murder suspect. As they do, family members say the victim who stood up to the robber was a hero.

Prince George's County Police show video of an armed robbery at an Oxon Hill hotel. It was a frightening scene that, moments later, resulted in the murder of 27-year-old employee Jesse Alexis Chavez.

"Well, he was very heroic. He heard a lady scream and he came out to investigate," said Prince George's County Police Captain George Nichols.

Police say it happened about 10 p.m. Monday at the Clarion Hotel on Oxon Hill Road in Oxon Hill. Surveillance video shows a male suspect entering the hotel and jumping the counter. Police say that man, armed with a gun, forced a 22-year-old female clerk to hand over the hotel's cash drawer.

"And he heard the screams from our female victim that actually was accosted and robbed, and he intervened and he was at the door between the suspect and the suspect being able to get outside to the vehicle," Nichols said.

Prince George's County police say in a heroic move, Chavez rushed to help his co-worker. He apparently struggled with the gunman and was shot and killed. Surveillance video captured the gunman fleeing in a dark colored sedan.

Chavez's family in nearby Ft. Washington is devastated.

"He knew right from wrong and he always stood by what was right," said his sister, Vivian Chavez.

Prince George's County Police and Chavez's family agree: they want the killer caught immediately so no one else gets hurt.

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