Greensboro shuts Studio 6 after violent, drug-related incidents at Veasley Street site

Greensboro officials moved to shut down the Studio 6 Extended Stay at 2000 Veasley St. after court records tied the property to a string of violent and drug-related incidents that city lawyers said posed an imminent threat to the public. A Guilford County Superior Court judge signed a temporary restraining order on April 28, blocking the hotel from taking in any new guests after the City of Greensboro filed its nuisance-abatement complaint the day before on behalf of the State of North Carolina.

The complaint says the property “poses an imminent risk to public morals, health, safety and welfare,” and it lays out a pattern that included stabbings, robberies, repeated drug activity, an overdose death, an officer-involved shooting and a search warrant executed in the hotel’s front office. Nearly 50 Greensboro police officers and five North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents were on scene when the order was delivered around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday.

The city named Narayan Greensboro Hotel LLC as the owner in the lawsuit, and county property records list Narayan Greensboro Hotel LLC as the owner associated with 2000 Veasley St. That ownership detail puts the case squarely on the property, not just the people passing through it, as Greensboro uses its nuisance-abatement power to argue that the site itself had become a continuing public-safety problem.

One of the central incidents in the complaint was the Jan. 24 officer-involved shooting. Greensboro police said it began after officers tried to arrest Oliver Wendell Watlington, 59, on warrants tied to a Jan. 22 incident in the Studio 6 parking lot. Those warrants included two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, sexual battery, assault on a female, misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and interfering with emergency communications. Police later said Watlington was arrested Feb. 15 and taken to the Guilford County Jail without bond. One officer was injured in the shooting and later released, and the officer involved was placed on administrative duty pending internal review.

Bryan House, with North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement, said nuisance-abatement statutes allow authorities to move quickly when traditional law enforcement methods are not enough to fix a problem property. ALE also conducted an administrative inventory at the site as the order was carried out.

The shutdown leaves questions for people around Veasley Street, including nearby businesses, residents and anyone displaced from the hotel. City leaders said they were helping former residents find temporary housing, underscoring that the case reaches beyond law enforcement and into the city’s broader response to problem motels that have become recurring flashpoints for crime and instability.