Shooting puts motel on Little Rock's scrutinize list; police log over 200 calls to business

A map showing the location of the Motel 6 in West Little Rock
A map showing the location of the Motel 6 in West Little Rock

A 31-year-old man was shot at a west Little Rock motel early Wednesday, one of the latest incidents at a property that officials say is being looked at by the city's Criminal Abatement Program.

Little Rock police spokesman Steve Moore said the high number of police calls at the Motel 6, at 10524 W. Markham St., often ties up police resources in the northwest patrol division, the city's largest and most populous.

"I hear the calls go out there all the time," Moore said of the motel.

According to department data, police have logged more than 200 incident reports at the motel from Aug. 8, 2016, through Wednesday. The incident reports range from property crimes and disturbance calls to violent crimes, such as rape, robbery and domestic batteries, according to the data.

"I would say that the Motel 6 out there is a problem for us," Moore said, mentioning that answering the high number of calls to that location can prevent police from responding in a quick manner to other calls within the division.

But it's not just the high call load. Moore said there is a prostitution problem at the motel. He said authorities have received complaints about such activity there and have made prostitution arrests at the property.

An employee at the Motel 6 declined to comment Wednesday.

At the motel, the majority of the calls for police occur between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m., Moore said, mentioning that there have been problems at the motel since at least five years ago.

One of the latest calls there arrived early Wednesday, when officers responded to a shooting and found 31-year-old Antonio Price of Little Rock on a bed with a towel held to his chest, according to a police report.

A 47-year-old woman told police that Price and another man were outside the room talking when the front office called and told them to go inside their room, according to the report.

When the other man went into the room, he reportedly pulled out an automatic handgun and ordered the 47-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman to undress, according to the report. The gunman then ordered the two women to perform a sexual act, the report said.

Price tried to stop the gunman, who fired two shots and hit Price, the 47-year-old woman told police. Emergency medical personnel took Price to a Little Rock hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, according to the report.

The gunman fled the motel. The report described him as a black male.

Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter said the city's Criminal Abatement Program is looking at the property on West Markham and gathering information to see whether the property meets the standard for abatement action.

He said there are two statutes that allow the city to take abatement action against a property -- one for drug abatement and another for nuisance abatement.

A Criminal Abatement Program log of the Motel 6 lists crimes that occurred at the property going back to 2015.

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Metro on 08/03/2017

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