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 prosecutors say Chad Everette Robertson was killed early Saturday when he tried to help a 29-year-old man 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 yesterday.