City shuts down another motel in International District. APD says more undercover operations underway

The Bow and Arrow Lodge was shut down Wednesday following an operation by Albuquerque police and code enforcement.

The motel becomes the third on Central Avenue to be shut down by the city in the last six months as law enforcement seeks to clean up the corridor, the eastern portion of which has become synonymous with homelessness and open-air drug use.

There have been two aggravated assaults, two armed robberies, four recovered stolen vehicles, two shootings, 29 gunshots detected and 52 calls for service at the motel, located west of Wyoming, over the past year, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.

“We had guns we recovered, we had drugs we recovered, (there were) convicted felons with guns. We even had a room that was set up for adult entertainment with cameras, lights and a pole,” Police Chief Harold Medina said at a news conference Thursday.

The chief added that there are two more undercover operations at motels in progress but would not confirm whether they were in the International District as well.

In October, the Tewa Lodge was temporarily shut down following an operation in which officers fatally shot Matthew Freddie Garcia after he armed himself while handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle. In January, the city conducted an operation to close the Loma Verde Motel.

While it has shut down the motels, the city is still giving the owners time to get up to code.

“Whether it was Loma Verde, Tewa or Bow and Arrow, what we’ve seen in every situation is massive code violations, inhospitable living, egregious situations,” Mayor Tim Keller said Thursday.

According to the Planning Department, the cost to rent a room at the motel ranged from $80 to $120 a night, and there were 21 occupants at the motel Wednesday as the operation to shut it down took place.

“More than half of them had places to go, but we ensured that they were safe and secure and felt comfortable going to those locations,” Albuquerque Community Safety Director Jodie Esquibel said.

Others who wanted to “stabilize their housing situation” were placed in hotels, according to Esquibel.