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Man killed at Fawlty Towers Motel in Cocoa Beach

COCOA BEACH, Fla. — Cocoa Beach police are searching for someone who shot and killed a man at the Fawlty Towers Motel on the Cocoa Beach Causeway Friday morning.

It's the city's first homicide of the year.

Police have little to go on. They don't know where the gunman ran and don't have a description of him.

The slaying happened at the motel just across the street from Ron Jon Surf Shop and just one block from the beach.

"It was so quick. 'Bam bam bam', stop. 'Bam bam bam,'" said Charlie, a guest who did not want to give his last name.

He said he heard the gunshots just outside his motel room at around 11:20 a.m.

"I heard running outside my door, so I opened it up and looked to my left, and 10 feet away there was a cop giving compressions to a man on the floor, another cop across the pool and he was holding back the manager of the hotel, and he was saying that someone had ran," Charlie said.

The motel guest said the victim appeared to be about 19 years old.

"The ambulance came and when it left without anyone on the stretcher, I knew they couldn't be saved," Charlie said.

The large crime scene startled vacationers walking along the busy Cocoa Beach Causeway.

"We hit the corner and see cop cars and yellow tape," said Keri Hollins of Dallas, Texas. "I wasn't expecting a murder scene."

Charlie said he was with his family on vacation from Miami.

"I closed the door, called my mom, she was at Ron Jon's Surf Shop, and she was like, 'Oh they're holding us back, they say someone is outside with a gun,'" Charlie said.

Charlie said they now plan to leave as soon as police allow them back in to get their things.

Charlie said the image he saw will be hard to erase.

"I stayed in, and they went to go shopping. Should have gone shopping," Charlie said.

Fawlty Towers made news last year when it became a nudist resort.

The owner has since converted it back into a traditional motel.

The identity of the victim is unknown.