Two people were shot and killed at a Minneapolis homeless encampment on Sunday afternoon and a third person was injured, for three shooting deaths over the weekend at homeless encampments.
According to Fox 9, two men were killed and a woman was injured Sunday at an encampment near Snelling Avenue, just east of Hiawatha Avenue.
Early Saturday morning, a man was fatally shot and two men were injured at an encampment near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S., Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
O’Hara provided the following details about Saturday’s shooting:
Shortly before 5 a.m., officers were called to the homeless encampment for reports of a shooting, he said. When officers arrived, they found three men who had been shot. One man was “lifeless,” he said. Officers performed CPR on all three men until they were taken to the hospital, he said.
One man died. The other two were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, he said.
Early information indicates that between 4:30 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. three people approached the encampment and the shooting occurred, he said. He noted that one of the victims had a small BB gun that looked like a real gun, but investigators are unsure what role this played in the shooting.
O’Hara confirmed that a 911 caller reported sounds of automatic gunfire at the shooting scene.
He said the encampment has been an ongoing problem for area residents and came about after a much larger encampment near Franklin Avenue near the underpass was dismantled.
“There’s something about these encampments that drives the crime around them,” he said. “That’s exactly what the data shows.”
O’Hara said 13% of all crime in the 3rd Precinct occurs within 500 feet of an encampment and 19% of all gun violence occurs within 500 feet of an encampment.
“We know that 23% of all shooting victims this year were within 500 feet of an encampment,” he said, later adding that encampments were not “humane” places for people to stay.
Last month, two men were killed in shootings at encampments.
