Two people died and three suffered serious or critical injuries in a shooting at a homeless encampment in South Seattle Tuesday night, according to police.
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Crews began cleaning up a homeless encampment north of “The Jungle” along Interstate 5 in Seattle on Wednesday.
Police are searching for at least one person connected with the incident.
Scheduled for cleanup today [January 27, 2016], Mayor Murray describe “The Jungle” as being “unmanageable and out of control” for over two decades.
As the mayor suggested in his speech, the shooting site and other homeless encampments contain many types of people, from down-on-their-luck citizens to drug addicts and criminals.
At a press conference, Assistant Police Chief Robert Merner said the shootings were not random, the Seattle Times reported.
In June 2009, 55-year-old Bernardino Maceo-Toirac was shot multiple times in the wooded area known for homeless camping.
The shooting appears to have happened in “the jungle”, a known homeless encampment. The mayor had declared a state of emergency in November after 66 homeless people died countywide during 2015 amid a homeless population that had skyrocketed by 21 percent since the year before.
Police said they believe the shooters weren’t homeless and were acquainted with the victims. Police interviewed witnesses and searched for two people they say are “persons of interest” in the case. The encampment where the shooting took place was not a city-sanctioned encampment.
Murray said city workers were set to go to the encampment on Wednesday to clean up the garbage and offer social services for the homeless, including mental health care and addiction treatment.
Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said Tuesday night police don’t believe anyone else in in danger.
Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said the victims ranged in age from 25 to 45 and that they sustained gunshot wounds to their chests, abdomens and other parts of their bodies. Three other victims underwent surgery Tuesday night.
“I can’t help but wonder, ‘Did I act too late?'” Murray said after the shooting.
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