No motive was identified, though a police report indicates officers initially investigated the incident as an aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.
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Two people who police said apparently fled the scene were described as potential suspects: young males wearing dark clothing who possibly drove off in a white, late-1990s Buick-style sedan.
The hotel is between Interstate 675 and Colonel Glenn Highway, near the campus of Wright State University. Day died at the nearby Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek, on the other side of the expressway.
Fairborn police offered few additional details about the slaying and did not agree to interviews Thursday.
“We’re trying to stop the bleeding,” a 911 caller told dispatch around 7:20 p.m. “We don’t have a room, we just walked in the door … somebody just shot the guy behind the counter.”
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“The people who shot you — they’re not still here, right?” the caller asked Day as others attempted to stop the bleeding from the clerk’s lower abdomen. “He’s not doing good,” the man switched back to dispatch. “You’ve got to hurry up.”
The 911 caller told dispatchers that others in the lobby were applying pressure to the victim’s wound while emergency crews responded to the scene. The caller also told police he believed the suspects may have fled as he was pulling into the hotel parking lot.
Police said there is no surveillance video of the incident from inside the hotel.
Hilton Worldwide, which owns the Hampton Inn brand, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Limited details were available about the deceased clerk, but a portrait began to emerge of the young man.
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Day graduated from Tecumseh in 2007, said Superintendent Norm Glismann, and he married his wife in 2013, according to Greene County Probate Court records.
A part-time photographer, Day specialized in “doing work with families to capture special moments,” according to his social media.
Students at Wright State University said the campus notified students about the incident.
“I received an alert from Wright State by email and on social media,” said graduate student Stacey Callison. “It’s rare for this area to have that kind of violence occur, and it’s terrible for the family involved.”
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