Prosecutor: Deadly NJ Hotel Stabbings “Random Attack”

Investigators say a confrontation at a central New Jersey hotel that ended with a Texas man being fatally stabbed and another critically injured was a random attack.

Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano says 30-year-old Chad Everette Robertson of Shoreacres was killed early Saturday when he tried to help a 29-year-old colleague from Houston who was being attacked by several people.

Robertson -- the married father of five young children -- was pronounced dead at the scene. The younger man, whose name has not been disclosed, underwent emergency surgery and remained hospitalized Monday night.

Soriano says the men have been in the New Jersey area for a few weeks working on an environmental project. But it's not clear if they were staying at the Franklin Township hotel where the stabbings occurred.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)