Three fatally shot, three injured in Minneapolis homeless encampments in two days – Twin Cities

Three people were fatally shot at a homeless encampment in Minneapolis over the weekend and three others were injured, according to Minneapolis police.

On Sunday afternoon, two men were killed and a woman was wounded in a shooting at the camp in the 4400 block of Snelling and Hiawatha avenues, according to a Minnesota Police Department news release.

A man was fatally shot and two men were injured early Saturday morning at an encampment near 21st Street and 15th Avenue S., Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

According to the report, at approximately 2:21 p.m. Sunday, 3rd Precinct officers responding to a shooting at a small encampment on Hiawatha Avenue found two men and a woman wounded by gunfire. Two men died on the spot. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office will identify the victims.

Three adult men were initially detained, but they were acquitted and released. According to the report, police have not ruled out that the shootings on Sunday afternoon and Saturday morning are related.

O’Hara reported the following details about Saturday’s shooting, which occurred about 3.5 miles north of Sunday’s episode:

Officers were called to the homeless encampment shortly before 5 a.m. on reports of shots fired. Law enforcement determined that three men were shot. One man was “lifeless,” O’Hara said. He said officers performed CPR on all three men until they were taken to the hospital.

One person died. Two others were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, he said.

According to preliminary information, between 4:30 and 4:45, three people approached the camp and shots were fired, O’Hara said. He noted that one of the victims had a small BB gun that looked like a real gun, but investigators aren’t sure what role it played in the shooting.

O’Hara confirmed that a 911 caller reported the sounds of automatic gunfire at the shooting scene.

He said the encampment has been an ongoing problem for area residents and that it formed after a much larger encampment near Franklin Avenue at the underpass was dismantled.

“There’s something about these camps that causes crime around them,” he said. “That’s what the data shows.”

O’Hara said 13% of all crimes in the 3rd Precinct occur within 500 feet of the encampment, and 19% of all gun violence occur within 500 feet of the encampment.

“We know that 23% of all shooting victims this year were within 500 feet of a camp,” he said, later adding that camps are not “humane” places for people to be.

Last month, two men were killed in shootings at the camps.