SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police and a slew of city agencies executed a warrant at a Northeast Side motel for several code violations, SAPD Sergeant Washington Moscoso said at the scene.
The warrant was executed around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Qubed Living in the 4600 block of Rittiman Road.
SAPD’s Dangerous Assessment Response Team (DART) warrant, typically issued by the city attorney’s office, normally addresses nuisance properties or code violations.
Moscoso said SAPD had received “thousands of calls to the location” ranging from sexual assault to human trafficking and other disturbances.
The motel had been operating as an extended stay, where some tenants would allegedly staying for multiple months at a time, Moscoso said.
Andrew Pitts has been at the motel since January. He told KSAT he wasn’t surprised to hear the city was there because of “a lot of criminal activity.”
“Well, I never seen anything but maybe prostitutes coming in and out — all hours of the night,” Pitts said.
As SAPD cleared rooms, officers noticed locks on the outside of several doors to lock people inside, which Moscoso said was a usual indication of human trafficking. Police did not specify if people were inside the rooms.
Moscoso also said they’ve also received multiple reports of human trafficking and sexual assault.
However, Natasha Washington, who stayed at the motel earlier this year and visited the motel on Tuesday, believed the locks on the doors were done to keep people out of the rooms.
“They just really just locked them up — just to keep people from going in because they wasn’t (sic) renting them,” Washington said.
KSAT saw several rooms with outside locks on them, though it was hard to tell if all were unoccupied. One of the doors had a city notice taped to it about a dog that had been taken to Animal Care Services (ACS).
SAPD detectives were on scene as they spoke to witnesses and victims to find out if human trafficking had taken place.
While some people were detained at the scene, Moscoso did not confirm if anyone was expected to face charges. However, SAPD said “multiple people” were found with felony and misdemeanor warrants and were taken into custody.
Some of the city agencies present with SAPD included San Antonio Metropolitan Health, Neighborhood & Housing Services and ACS.
When KSAT visited the site again on Tuesday afternoon after the agencies left, the office was locked. No one answered when a reporter knocked.
As of Tuesday night, a voicemail was also not returned.
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