Gang mayhem and murder sprang from an L.A. motel, suit says; city targets owner

The city of Los Angeles has filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit against the owner of a South L.A. motel where at least seven shootings and 30 LAPD arrests have taken place since 2020.

The city attorney alleges that the 10-room Sun Motel was a hub for the Denver Lane Gangster Blood, or DLGB, street gang. In addition to the shootings and arrests at the property, a statement by the city attorney cited “the recovery of 14 guns, plus numerous investigations related to trafficking, sexual assaults, robberies, carjackings, sales of narcotics and murder.”

The lawsuit claims that the motel owner failed to suppress the crimes happening there. The suit is part of a broader push from the city attorney’s office to address human trafficking in the Figueroa Corridor.

The Sun Motel, owned by Bullhead City Inn Corp. since 2016, was the site of numerous shootings, the most recent of which occurred one month before the lawsuit and prompted an investigation uncovering two dozen spent bullet casings on the property, according to the city attorney’s office.

“For decades, the Figueroa corridor has been a volatile magnet for crime, including the sexual exploitation of minors, and the illegal activity of some of the businesses in the area has helped fuel it,” City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto said in a statement. “This lawsuit is another step toward disrupting the ecosystem of violence and bringing safety back to this community.”

Last year, a court ordered a nearby motel to close after a similar lawsuit from the city that cited 16 prostitution-related arrests.

Officials encourage those with information on child sex crimes or other trafficking to call the FBI’s Los Angeles field office at (310) 477-6565 or provide tips at https://tips.fbi.gov.