Leasing a Unit with Crime Connection

While in the process of documenting a resident had an unauthorized occupant, who I knew had recent criminal convictions, he was shot twice at a local night club and nearly died. They have not arrested the shooter.

This happened on May 16th this year. She and the guy moved out on June 13th. She just moved in last December and he has been there most of the time. I re-rented the apartment with a scheduled move-in for today.

Yesterday morning, we came in to find graffiti in red paint written on the sidewalk in front of the apartment and the walkway leading to the unit. In three places someone wrote "Dead" and "Dead Tony" and "TLO Dead."

I convinced the owner we had to disclose this to the applicant who was scheduled to move in. Of course, she doesn't want the apartment and I don't have another one.

I am going to put a "For Rent" sign in front of it (two story townhouse), open the blinds downstairs and turn on a light. I'm hoping whoever is looking for him will see it is empty. I know it's risky leaving the unit like this, but I don't know what else to do.

Now, what do I do about finding another tenant? I don't want to tell everyone who comes in what happened. This is a small town and I don't want to hurt our reputation. Nothing actually happened at the apartment or on the property, but apparently someone thinks he is still living here with his girlfriend and they might come back and do a drive-by shooting.

How long should I keep the unit down before finding another tenant? Has anyone experienced anything like this??

This is a really tough one. I had something similar happen a few years ago. A Hispanic resident with ties to a local Hispanic gang was shot outside his apartment by a rival gang. It made all the local news channels. Of course the newscaster interviewed the worst resident and took video footage of a uhaul van leaving to imply residents were moving out. The van was actually empty as a new resident had just moved in! Anyway we notified all of the residents and let them know we were working closely with the police. The killer was apprehended and when that happened we sent another note.
Your idea of leaving the blinds open with the lights on and, the for rent sign is great. I would demand a police presence in your community as well. Between your actions and the police that should not only deter the criminals, it will let your residents know you are taking it seriously.

I really hated to read the OP, as I feel sorry for the apartment manager and the owners and it is yet another nail in the coffin of our society. I have never experienced defacement of my properties, but I have certainly experienced scumbag people who "usually" are not the tenant, but the baggage thereof. Although you have connotations of gang activity, I hope that is not the case, and this is an isolated and extreme situation for the property. Sometimes you can run backgrounds and it shows clearly no problems returned on a tenant, but you have no way to know who they may have a connection with.
I am almost ready to believe that any tenant unit that is EVER even once "bluelighted" by the police, whether the tenant or the visitor is involved, an immediate eviction should happen. Let them know coming in the unit that we will not accept this. If a police car is seen once on a property by someone driving by, that person will say "every time I drive by there the cops are there".
I would hold a meeting with your tenants and explain this is such an unusual event, your totally blown away by it, and you can't help it happening, but your going to screen every man, woman, cat, dog, and fly that comes on your property from now on.
I know this is just another taste of where we are in this day and time.
The big city managers will say this is just another day at the office, but us smaller town folks get pretty upset over such things.
Good Luck. Hopefully time will wash this away.

Wow - not the best situation, is it? Obviously, we cannot control everything that happens offsite, nor onsite. With no way of predicting this type of occurrance, it would be impossible to be proactive either regarding someone spray painting a "warning" in front of the unit. Therefore, what else could you do but inform the person moving in that day of what happened. I would probably use this unit as a Mini Model for a month and set it up as such. That way you will be going in and out of it frequently. This will show your Residents you are a visible force and your presence at all hours will help restore their sense of your community being safe. I would not tell anyone you are touring that the unit has a "history" now. But I would make sure Applicants know that the unit will not be available to rent until a designated date, as it is your only "Show Unit" and you are spotlighting it for this month.

Definitely would be having my police officers stepping up their patrols! I would also make sure there is super lighting outside the unit and keep the porch lights on, too. Residents should be made aware in a general way that no destructive behavior will be tolerated by any person or Guest on the property, which you already do anyway.

I know you have a waiting list of people wanting to live in your community. I would also hold an outdoor Neighborhood Watch meeting and a Take the Night Back evening with invited Guest speakers, like the Police Chief, Mayor, any "cool Locals" and have a fun, party atmosphere with games for the kids, etc. This might help redirect any negative attention.