Police investigating fatal shooting at troubled southeast Oklahoma City motel
A man was found shot to death Monday inside a second-floor room at a hotel where police routinely investigate stabbings, shootings, drug overdoses and other problems.
The shooting happened about 9 a.m. at the Plaza Inn, 3200 S Interstate 35 Service Road. A spokesman said officers were still looking into what prompted the shooting and who might have been involved.
Multiple shots were reported, said Oklahoma City police Sgt. Dillon Quirk, who added he couldn't confirm whether the victim had been armed.
"Obviously, we are in the very early stages of the investigation," he said.
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Owners of troubled Plaza Inn 'trying very much' to correct problems
The Plaza Inn, which has about 100 rentable rooms, has been open along the east side of I-35 in southeast Oklahoma City since 1971. It has been owned by Plaza Hotels LLC, headquartered in El Reno, since about 2015.
Between Jan. 1 and late August, police responded to calls involving at least 10 assaults, two shootings, eight attempted suicides, three stabbings, 13 thefts, four acts of vandalism and 11 overdoses.
Steve Ketter, a part owner of the company that operates the motel, said Monday it really has only become a magnet for problems over the past few years. He said the company hired Blackhawk Security more than a year ago to increase its customers' safety after it decided its motel staff needed help.
Ketter said the motel's employees work with both the security company and the Oklahoma City Police Department's Santa Fe division, which he strongly praised, to boost public safety in the area.
Ketter said the Plaza Inn's managers routinely evict anyone they suspect of being involved in illegal activities, often calling officers for help.
He said what often happens, however, is that people just go to a motel next door to set up shop there.
"We have been getting a lot of newer people there in the past few months, and we feel like that has been kind of straightening it out," Ketter said. "We just want to stand up for our motel, to let the public know we are trying — trying very much — to do the right things."
As for Monday's fatal shooting, police didn't attribute it to conditions at the motel.
"I know that we have responded to more than one homicide in this location, but right now, there is no evidence that they are connected or correlated in any way," Quirk said Monday.
More than a dozen officers responded to the scene Monday, where they conducted interviews and looked for witnesses.
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As officers were conducting interviews, several women arrived at the motel and approached the crime scene before being escorted back outside and being interviewed by a homicide detective.
A woman, who said she was the victim's mother, told reporters she had last seen her son, a 41-year-old father, on Sunday and had no idea why he might have been at the motel Monday morning.
She declined to provide her name or the name of her son.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Man found dead in second-floor room at trouble spot motel by police
