Three fatally shot, three wounded in Minneapolis homeless encampments over two days

Three people were fatally shot at homeless encampments in Minneapolis over the weekend and three more were wounded, Minneapolis police said.

On Sunday afternoon, two men were killed and a woman was injured in a shooting at an encampment on the 4400 block between Snelling and Hiawatha Avenue, according to a news release from the Minnesota Police Department.

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

According to the release, at approximately 2:21 p.m. Sunday, officers from the 3rd Precinct responding to a shooting at the small encampment off Hiawatha Avenue located two men and a woman injured by gunfire. The two men died at the scene. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office will identify the victims.

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

O’Hara gave the following details about the Saturday shooting, which occurred about 3 1/2 miles north of the Sunday episode:

Shortly before 5 a.m. officers were called to the homeless camp on reports of a shooting. Officers found three men had been shot. One man was “lifeless,” O’Hara 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, O’Hara said. He noted that one of the victims had a small BB gun that looked like an actual pistol, but investigators aren’t sure what role that played in the shooting.

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

He said the encampment is an ongoing issue for residents of the neighborhood and that it formed after a much larger encampment near Franklin Avenue by the underpass was dismantled.

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

O’Hara said 13% percent of all crime in the 3rd Precinct happens within 500 feet of an encampment and that 19% of all gun violence occurs within 500 feet of one.

“We know that 23% of all shooting victims this year have been within 500 feet of an encampment,” he said, adding later that encampments were not “humane” places for people to be.

Last month, two men were killed during shootings at encampments.