Local Motel Under Scrutiny after 3 Murders in Less than 2 Months

The Quality Inn Motel on 82nd is reportedly plagued by numerous crimes. Photo credit: M. Washington

According to two Portland media outlets, a local motel is under increased scrutiny by the Portland Police Bureau following three shooting deaths in less than two months.

KOIN-TV reported in early January that the Quality Inn Motel, located near the intersection of Northeast Sandy Blvd. and Northeast 82nd Avenue, has been the site of three separate deadly shootings there, one in November and two in December.

According to KOIN, police said it’s been a challenge to clean up the area and they’re looking to get the motel deemed “a chronic nuisance property” but said it’s a long process.

“Our concern level was raised in the beginning, when the first homicide happened,” said PPB spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen. “The fact that we’ve had these other two in December has only increased the urgency in that area.”

KOIN reported that people who live near the motel have noticed problems like garbage in the parking lot and broken fences, causing concerns, and one man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he witnessed one of the shootings.

“I feel very unsafe because some of these people look like they might be breaking into my house one of these days,” he said.

According to a January 4 article in the Oregonian, Choice Hotels, which owns the Quality Inn brand, said in an email that the hotel is independently owned. The paper reported that Oregon Secretary of State records show that the Quality Inn is registered to GSS Hospitality of Portland with Jun Hyuk Jo listed as president, who did not return a message left on his phone.

The Oregonian stated that police have said little publicly about the three shootings.

The first death was on Nov. 20 when police found 43-year-old Kimo Henriques, a Vancouver resident, in the parking lot with gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital where he died, according to the newspaper.

The next death was on Dec. 4, when Benjamin Walker, 45, of Hillsboro was shot and killed in the hotel parking lot.

And on Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve, a third man was killed in the parking lot. Police have made no arrests and have not released his name.

Six other shootings, dating back to 2020, occurred in the same location as the motel, according to the Oregonian, including a shooting in 2022 when it was a Howard Johnson’s when Martre Oliver shot is twin brother, Martese Oliver, who died in the lobby.

According to the Oregonian, police said in court that the brothers had driven to Portland from Renton, Washington, with two women and had rented two rooms for alleged sex trafficking.

The newspaper also reported that the Police Bureau’s Human Trafficking Unit has conducted patrol missions in the area near Northeast 82nd Ave. and Sandy Blvd. to stem human trafficking and that officers had made nine arrests and towed two cars in the latest mission on Dec. 19.

Chrystal O’Day lives just a few blocks from the Quality Inn and another motel, Madison Suites, in the area where four homicides near 82nd Ave. and Milton Street occurred from August 2021 to March 2022, the article stated.

O’Day told the Oregonian that she has been awakened several times in the middle of the night by gunshots, and open drug use is rampant.

“I’d like to see more police presence and I feel like something needs to be done about these motels in these few blocks,” she said.