Sep. 3, 2003 - Troy police may seek charges as early as today in connection with a robbery at a Troy Holiday Inn that left a hotel employee dead and a guest hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

Although police had several people in custody less than 12 hours after the attacks -- and are confident they have the shooter -- at least one suspect may still be at large.

"The motive is robbery, but there is no justification for what went on in that Holiday Inn today -- none whatsoever," said Lt. Steve Zavislak, a Troy police spokesman. "It's really a senseless, brutal crime."

Officers got a report about 1:30 a.m. that someone had been shot at the hotel on Rochester Court, near the intersection of Rochester Road and I-75. Police found desk clerk Michelle Eberhard, 35, dead of a gunshot wound. The Redford woman, who police said they believe was the only clerk on duty at the time, had worked at the hotel for less than two months.

Officers also found a second victim -- the 28-year-old wife of a Cedar Park, Texas, police officer who was trying to check into her room for the night. Zavislak declined to identify the woman, who was traveling on business, but he said she is expected to recover from her gunshot wound.

The injured guest was able to provide officers with information that helped them in their investigation, Zavislak said. Troy Police officials called in every officer they could and got help from neighboring departments and the Oakland County Sheriff's Department.

The injured woman's husband, Chris Joost, flew in Tuesday morning and was met at the airport by Troy police officers, who took him to his wife's bedside at a local hospital.

Zavislak said cash was missing from the hotel, as well as other property.

A hotel employee who answered the phone Tuesday afternoon referred questions about the incident to the Troy Police.

"We're all pretty grief-stricken here," he said.

Hotel officials later issued a statement expressing their sadness at the killing.

"Our prayers and thoughts are with the family and friends of our . . . employee, as well as our injured guest," the statement read.

The hotel remained locked Tuesday afternoon. Fingerprint powder dusted the front doors, where a hastily printed sign had been taped: "We are temporarily closed." Guests were relocated to other hotels.

Three bundles of newspapers, never distributed Tuesday morning to hotel guests, sat in a pile in the nearly deserted parking lot.

Zavislak said much work remains for detectives before charges can be requested. That may happen as early as today.

Officers were tight-lipped about whether the robbery may have been an inside job. But it took detectives less than twelve hours to track the suspects to Detroit, where they made the arrests around noon Tuesday, Zavislak said.

He wouldn't say how many people were arrested, and he also declined to release the gender of those in custody.

He said the suspect or suspects disabled the hotel's video surveillance equipment, but not before it recorded at least some useful images.

"We were able to get some video evidence . . . from before they disabled the cameras," Zavislak said. "We were able to get enough off it that we believe we've got the individual who did the shooting."

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