DC crime ‘hotspot' hotel agrees to increase security

The owner of a D.C. hotel agreed to increase security at a hotel where the attorney general says there have been multiple homicides, drug-related deaths and violent incidents.

The attorney general's office says the budget-friendly Ivy City Hotel on New York Avenue NE keeps police busy.

"It's really a hotspot for criminal activity," Assistant Deputy Attorney General Beth Mellen said.

From February 2023 to 2024, the hotel saw two homicides, two armed robberies, three apparent drug-related deaths, and several other incidents where police found ghost guns and dangerous drugs like fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the attorney general's office.

"We were very concerned about this property as soon as we saw this pattern of incidents," Mellen said.

In May 2023, 31-year-old Christy Bautista of Harrisonburg, Virginia, was stabbed to death inside of her room at the hotel while visiting D.C. for a concert. Her accused killer forced his way into her room and was arrested in the hotel's office moments after the homicide, covered in blood, police said.

The attorney general's office announced Thursday changes are on the way.

"Common sense security improvements that owners can put in place to deter crime, prevent crime," Mellen said.

The owner agreed to increase overnight security; maintain better, brighter lighting overnight; and link hotel security cameras to the Metropolitan Police Department's Real-Time Crime Center.

"It just ensures that those cameras that are up that MPD has that direct access for both in real time, as the name suggests, being able to monitor, but also to have that easy access that may be necessary," Mellen said.

The agreement will stay in place for a year, and the attorney general's office said it will make regular inspections. If the owner doesn't keep up their end of the deal, they will go to court.