news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Two tarps blocking the view of Room 304 at the LandMark Inn on Tuesday morning symbolized the latest in a series of problems linked to 2838 S. Elm-Eugene St.

Inside the room, police detectives investigated a crime scene. Hours earlier, that’s where Willie James Bolden Jr., 28 , was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

Bolden is the third homicide victim linked to the extended-stay motel in the past five weeks. No arrest has been made in the latest killing.

The violence equates to a huge problem in the eyes of Greensboro police and the city’s leadership.

“For 2009, it’s been the No. 1 spot for homicides in the city,” police Chief Tim Bellamy said. “It’s because of the types of people renting the rooms and the lifestyles they are living.”

Police say the homicides are connected to long-standing problems in the area: drugs and prostitution. Both are problems that officers have tackled with increased patrols and sting operations, which have helped but haven’t eliminated the trouble.

“We started noticing (an increase) in problems in the spring,” Bellamy said.

“There are not a lot of people occupying the motel ... but it seems that people staying there are leaving and coming back with drugs and prostitution,” he said. “A lot of the problems are happening in the rooms, so it’s hard to make an arrest.”

As of midday Tuesday, police said they have received 562 calls about the motel in 2009. Of those, 36 were about narcotics, six were related to prostitution, and four each were about shootings and robberies. The bulk of the calls were for trespassing or domestic violence or were 911 hang-ups.

The motel’s troubles worry its neighbors.

“We are very concerned (about the problems),” said Robin Connor, vice president of Mother Murphy’s Laboratories, a food company that is near the LandMark Inn. “We have a lot of employees who work nights and weekends, and we’ve been making sure to have someone around to walk females to their car.”

For city leaders, the question is what can be done to curb crime at the motel, which sits next to Interstate 40/85, and at similar inexpensive extended-stay locations around Greensboro.

“We need to look at our ordinances,” said Councilwoman-elect Nancy Vaughn. “We need to have property owners who are responsible for their sites. If their site is a magnet for trouble, have them pay for police protection and cameras.”

Vaughn and other members of the new City Council said they wouldn’t rule out considering the motel for possible nuisance abatement, a civil action used to close problematic businesses.

“I’m hoping our new (city) manager will look at areas where we are having crime and the different mechanisms we can use ... that include nuisance abatement,” Councilwoman Trudy Wade said.

Capt. Chris Walker, commander of the police department’s southern patrol division, said nuisance abatement should be a last resort.

“It is a hotel, and not everyone at that location is a criminal, and that’s something you have to consider when you take civil action,” Walker said.

“You can’t bulldoze every low-budget motel in Greensboro, wipe your hands and say, 'We solved that problem,’ because people lived there and they have to go somewhere.”

Attempts to reach the motel’s owner and management for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday.

A desk clerk said the owner was out of town and would not comment.

Bellamy did offer praise for the business and its efforts to combat crime.

“They’ve got one of the best security systems we’ve seen, and they’ve always allowed us to view it,” Bellamy said.

“They have real-time recording and surveillance on the building and in the parking lot, and we don’t find that at a lot of hotels in other parts of the city.”

Police have talked with management about hiring off-duty security to patrol the grounds.

“We’ve got to go through whatever means we have to stop it,” Bellamy said. “We just pray and hope nobody else loses their life at that location.”

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com