Mayor Moves To Close Umbrella Hotel After Fatal Shooting

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — Mayor Bill de Blasio is pursuing the shutdown of the Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens after a triple shooting outside the hotel on New Year's Day marked the city's first homicide of 2021.

The shooting, which happened a little over an hour after the start of the new year, killed 20-year-old Rosedale resident Robert Williams and wounded two others, according to police.

"I instructed my team to move to close that hotel immediately," de Blasio told reporters Monday. "We're checking obviously all of our legal powers here to make sure that what we do is legal and appropriate, but I want it closed. I think it's been a blight on the community and it should not be that going forward."

The Jan. 1 homicide was the latest in a spate of shootings and assaults that have unfolded at the hotel during the pandemic, though it is seemingly the first to prove fatal.

One shooting, on Aug. 9, left bullet holes in the hotel's glass revolving front door.

In a joint statement, Assembly Member Daniel Rosenthal and City Council Member Karen Koslowitz said the mayor's order long overdue.

For months, Rosenthal, Koslowitz and local residents had lobbied the mayor's office to shut down the hotel, citing a history of criminal activity that includes the sex trafficking of minors.

The hotel was given over a dozen violations, including two criminal summonses, after a joint investigation in November by the NYPD, Department of Buildings, Department of Environmental Protection, FDNY and New York City Sheriff's Office.

"The Mayor’s response comes on the heels of a preventable murder and triple shooting on New Years Day, but this solution should have come much sooner," Rosenthal and Koslowitz said in the prepared statement. "While the mayor has taken the first steps towards a solution, we must continue to stay vigilant and hold him accountable until the hotel is shut down."

A receptionist who answered the phone Tuesday at the Umbrella Hotel said the hotel was still open and that a manager was not immediately available to speak to a reporter.

The NYPD has released images of four men sought in connection with the New Year's Day homicide.