From St. Petersburg's Times (Thomas C Tobin 12-31-2001), on how Adam's Mark was treated by the same group a year earlier: The previous year, 1998, hotel managers said they felt besieged by Black College Reunion guests.
There was a stabbing on the 11th floor, 11 aggravated assaults on the upper floors, a major fight in the lobby and more than 25 break-ins in the parking lot. Drug use was rampant in the rooms, with some maids refusing to fight their way through marijuana smoke.
Two employees were threatened at gunpoint, and sheriff's deputies took five guns from the rooms. Several rooms were damaged, the stairwells were sullied with trash and urine, and a naked woman was left unconscious on the front drive. Because of that experience, the hotel beefed up its security in 1999 as never before.