Officers began searching a greenbelt where there is a homeless encampment known as “The Jungle”, and found the five victims. The three others remained in serious condition.
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Police responded to reports of shots fired at about 7:20 p.m. near Airport Way South and South Atlantic Street south of downtown.
A police search of the area turned up five victims.
Seattle Assistant Police Chief Robert Merner said a preliminary investigation indicated the shooting was “very targeted”. He said police had reason to believe it was a targeted attack.
Authorities said no one has been arrested and they are looking for two “persons of interest”.
One victim, a woman, died at the scene, while another man died after being brought to the hospital.
Two people were killed and three others were injured in a shooting Tuesday at a Seattle homeless encampment known as “The Jungle”, Seattle police said.
“We’ve got gunshot wounds to the chest, the abdomen”, said Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg.
Investigators believe the shooting was a dispute involving low-level drug dealing, O’Toole said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
In June 2014, one Seattle Pacific University student died and two other suffered injuries in an on-campus shooting.
Mayor Ed Murray said the encampment “has been unmanageable and out of control for nearly two decades”.
“As soon as we can release the information we will”, she said.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the two people killed Tuesday night at a homeless encampment in Seattle.
Murray has previously declared homelessness a “full-blown crisis” in Seattle.
After his address on the state of emergency for homelessness in the city, Murray spoke with reporters at the scene of the shooting. Murray said the number of homeless school age children has grown in the city to 3,000.
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Seattle will spend about $50 million in 2016 to combat homelessness, but Murray said the city can’t solve it unless it receives more help.
