Shakopee Revokes the Baymont Hotel's License After Deaths, Gang Threats, and 84 Police Calls

TLDR

• Shakopee's City Council voted 4-1 on July 21 to revoke the Baymont Hotel's license.
• Police logged 84 incidents at the hotel across 2025 and 2026.
• Two people were found dead in a room after a New Year's event, and a March promoter event brought gang threats and about 40 armed guards.
• The owner pitched a plan to keep operating. Council said no.

The Baymont Hotel in Shakopee is losing its license to operate. On July 21, 2026, the City Council voted 4-1 to revoke it after hearing a stunning list of problems — including two deaths and an event that nearly turned violent. Here's the full story of what happened and why.

What Staff Laid Out

City staff walked the council through the hotel's recent history, and it was rough. Police recorded 84 incidents tied to the Baymont between 2025 and 2026 — 41 one year and 43 the next. The list included assaults, threats, drugs, theft, welfare checks, and criminal sexual conduct.

Two incidents stood out. In the first, the hotel sold out to a private adult event. Afterward, police looking for missing people found their car in the lot — and then found two people dead in a room. Both tested positive for fentanyl, meth, and cocaine. They'd been there long enough to decompose.

The March Lock-In Event

The second incident was bigger. On March 28-29, 2026, the hotel let a promoter rent the entire property for a 24-hour event. Police found out not from the hotel, but from their own monitoring of social media — where a gang had made credible threats of violence.

Officers went to the hotel beforehand and warned management it was a bad idea. The event happened anyway. There were around 40 armed security guards, marijuana smoke thick enough to trip the fire alarms over and over, and a stack of suspected violations — trafficking, drugs, unlicensed alcohol and cannabis sales, and firearms. Police ended up sending four officers on overtime just to keep a lid on it. As one staffer put it, with only 52 officers in the whole city, they couldn't safely step in against that big a crowd.

The Hotel's Side

The owner didn't hide from it. Attorney Megan Rogers of Larkin Hoffman and owner Jazz Singh, of Multisur Hotels, both stood up and acknowledged the events were unacceptable. They shared some context: about $12 million invested in the property since 2016, an off-season occupancy of just 25%, and no profitable year. Singh also said his majority partner had been assassinated in Canada, leaving the ownership group 'rudderless' for a year.

Their pitch was a 15-page conditional license — a plan with tiered booking rules, no full hotel buyouts, no promoter events, and an escrow account to pay for extra city oversight over a 24-month trial. 'You give us one chance and we will run a very clean organization,' Singh told the council.

Why Council Said No

The plan didn't land. A recurring theme from both the mayor and city administrator was simple: the city is not in the hotel business, and shouldn't have to babysit a private company to keep it safe. 'Should taxpayers and city staff have to actively supervise a private business in order for it to operate safely?' one council member asked.

The mayor was blunt. 'What has been brought before me and council is unacceptable at every level,' he said, adding that he couldn't understand how a management operation could lack 'this much common sense for so long.' When the owner argued the city never specifically told them to cancel the March event, the mayor shot back: 'Wide-open drug use and gun exposure is probably a pretty good clue.'

Council member Lara kept circling back to the two deaths — specifically how long the bodies went undiscovered. The owner explained the hotel runs light on housekeeping in the off-season. That answer didn't sit well with anyone.

The motion to revoke passed 4-1. Only one council member — Whiting, who worried about a derelict building hurting the growing entertainment district near Canterbury Park and the new amphitheater — wanted to give the plan a chance. You can find official agendas and notices on the City of Shakopee's public notices page.

The Bottom Line

The Baymont's license is revoked. For a deeper look at how this fits into everything else council handled that night, check out our full recap of the July 21 meeting. It's worth noting the hotel does sit near Shakopee's fast-growing entertainment and events district, which is part of why one council member was reluctant.

FAQ

Is the Baymont Hotel closing? It's losing its license to operate as a hotel. The council voted 4-1 to revoke it after the appeal failed. The hotel had been running temporarily during the appeal.

What actually happened at that March event? A promoter rented the whole hotel for a 24-hour 'lock-in' event. It brought gang-violence threats, around 40 armed guards, heavy drug use, and 16 police calls. Four officers worked overtime to contain it.

Did people really die there? Yes. Two people were found dead in a room after a separate New Year's-time event. Both tested positive for fentanyl, meth, and cocaine, and had been there long enough to decompose.

Why wouldn't the city just accept the hotel's new safety plan? Council felt it would put city staff and taxpayers in the role of supervising a private business, which they said isn't the city's job. They also questioned whether the owners would actually follow it.

Hotel safety and trafficking training — isn't that required by law? Minnesota does require lodging staff to complete sex-trafficking prevention training under state law. You can read more about the Minnesota lodging training program here. The hotel said it completed it — but that didn't outweigh the record of incidents.