A northeast OKC motel is a base for prostitution and other crimes. Neighbors want it shut down

The emergency call to Oklahoma City police came before daylight — another incident at a northeast area motel residents say has become a base for drug use, prostitution and violent crime.

In the early morning of March 4, police were dispatched to the Relax Inn along the 2200 block of NE 23. In Room 126, they found Cherri Brooks, 36, suffering from several gunshot wounds to her upper torso.

She died later at OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center.

Investigators using security camera footage and automatic license plate reader cameras later arrested and charged three men with first-degree homicide: Zaviaire Swain, 19, his brother, Demarion Swain, 17, and Michael Gaunt, 20.

The motel where Brooks was shot has been troubled for some time. But it is just one of several motels/apartment buildings in the metro area known for reported illegal activity, including the Plaza Inn on the south side of Oklahoma City and New Life Village in Edmond.

Last year at the Relax Inn, police logged 124 responses to incidents, according to data obtained by The Oklahoman.

Those responses ranged from 911 hangup calls and traffic stops to domestic violence, attempted suicide and assaults. Several referred to “morals violations.”

An affidavit for a search warrant, obtained by The Oklahoman, showed police received calls for "homicide, assaults, prostitution and drug trafficking."

"I personally have executed numerous search warrants at this location that have yielded narcotics, drug proceeds and firearms." a police sergeant wrote in the affidavit.

Neighbors and nearby business owners say they are fed up with the situation at the motel.

More: After a year, Oklahoma City's MLK neighborhood is still changing the narrative: 'We can do this'

“It increasingly gets worse,” Victoria Kemp, who co-owns Florence’s Restaurant, a local icon a few blocks west of Relax Inn, told The Oklahoman. “There is no downtime ... nothing slows it down.”

Kemp owns a home near the motel. She said human feces litter the area. Trash cannot be controlled.

One day, she said she drove up to the home and saw a woman in the backyard performing oral sex on a man, with another man “waiting his turn.” Last year, she discovered a bullet hole in her window.

In November, she spoke at a city council meeting, asking for Relax Inn to be declared a public nuisance, a key step in getting the motel shut down.

“Had I been sitting at my desk, that bullet would have almost certainly went right through my head,” Kemp told the council. “That bullet went through my dining room wall, through my refrigerator and is right now lodged in a shelf inside my refrigerator.”

A raid at Relax Inn

State and county records list Relax Inn as operated by Narendra Patel, of Hari Krupa Inc.

When a reporter with The Oklahoman visited Relax Inn, seeking comment from the owner, the door to the front desk was locked. A man answering the doorbell appeared at a window and said the owner was “out of the country.” The reporter left a business card with the man, but Patel never responded, and The Oklahoman was unable to reach Patel by phone.

The Oklahoman also reached out to the Oklahoma City Police Department regarding enforcement efforts at the motel.

More: LiveFree OKC, led by Jabee, aims to address root causes of the cycle of gun violence

On April 3, Master Sgt. Gary Knight replied in an email:

“As a police department, we are always evaluating the best options for allocating manpower, and this case is no different. We will continue to focus our resources on the areas that we feel are most in need of attention.”

A day later, police raided Relax Inn, and four people were arrested, with complaints ranging from drug manufacturing and trafficking to possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Other centers of illegal activity in the OKC metro area

Edmond city leaders have a court petition for abatement asking the owners of New Life Village at 1300 E Ayers to be sold. The eastside hotel/apartment complex has experienced public safety and code related problems since at least 2014.

In October, Plaza Inn at 3200 S Interstate 35 Service Road in Oklahoma City was shut down after a judge declared it a public nuisance.

Once described by a local police officer as "the fentanyl den of Oklahoma City," the Plaza Inn was a hotspot for criminal activity for many years, with reports alleging deadly violence, drug dealing and prostitution.

Responding to Kemp at a November council meeting, Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice said Relax Inn should be treated like Plaza Inn.

"This is the same type of nuisance ... and I am sick and tired of seeing the things that I see as ... I travel down Northeast 23rd Street.”

In a phone interview with The Oklahoman, Nice said she wants to see Relax Inn and a neighboring convenience store “go away.”

“It was very tragic with what happened within the last month or so with someone being shot and killed, and the fact that it’s young people involved,” Nice said. “All of the dynamics and all the things that are part of that doesn’t sit well with me, and I know they don't sit well with the people in the neighborhood, and this is why something has to be done.”

According to Oklahoma City's public nuisance ordinance, the city must submit a written statement to the owner or manager to immediately stop drug-related activity, prostitution and open lot disturbances before taking a property owner to court and having a property shut down.

A spokeswoman for the city declined to comment on Relax Inn but pointed to the city’s public nuisance ordinance.

The Oklahoman spoke to other neighborhood residents about Relax Inn, but they did not want to be named for this story.

One woman showed The Oklahoman a bullet hole that went through the front window.

Residents say because of Relax Inn’s reputation, many people who go there do not park in the motel’s lot, but in the neighborhood.

When police sirens are heard, people scramble out of the motel and scatter into the neighborhood to get back to their cars and flee police response.

Do motel and apartment problems indicate a need for more community services?

Some in the community say Relax Inn is a business that exploits the unfortunate like those dealing with substance abuse and homelessness.

“We need resources in our community to ensure for our residents that this is not what they are reliant on,” Nice said.

In agreement is Jabee Willliams, a local rapper, business owner and community activist.

“What’s going on over here is from a longstanding lack of economic development, resources,” Williams said. “That’s what happens whenever a community is underserved for so long. I think it’s important to remember that the things we’re talking about and the things we’re seeing are people in our community who need help, and we want to try to point them in the right direction and not provide opportunities for them to be exploited by these types of businesses.”

Among revitalization efforts in the area is the future Clara Luper Civil Rights Center, planned for NE 25 and Martin Luther King Ave.

Developed through the city's taxpayer-funded MAPS 4 program, the center will honor the civil rights icon, who in 1958, successfully led many of her students in conducting nonviolent sit-ins at Oklahoma City drugstores to protest segregation.

The protest preceded by almost two years the more nationally publicized sit-ins for desegregation at department stores by hundreds of students in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The center will be located about a half-mile northwest of Relax Inn.

Kemp shook her head at the thought.

“I think it’s going to be a magnet, and we cannot have people exiting I-35 on 23rd on their way to the Clara Luper Center and passing drug dealers and sex workers,” she said.

Kemp said as an entrepreneur she wants to see businesses succeed and provide a service to the community.

But after the bullet hole in her house, the recent homicide and a drug raid at Relax Inn, Kemp has a different opinion about the motel.

“Close it down,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Neighbors want northeast OKC motel shut down as public nuisance