Eight people have been wounded, four critically, in a shooting at a homeless encampment on private property in Minneapolis, police said. The incident occurred late Monday, just hours after another shooting near a transit station left five injured, as city officials grapple with a spike in violent crime.
Police Chief Brian O'Hara said an off-duty officer heard gunfire from the camp around 10 p.m. Officers found five victims at the scene, including a woman and two men with life-threatening injuries. Three others later arrived at hospitals with gunshot wounds, one critical. No arrests have been made in either shooting.
The encampment is at the centre of a legal dispute between property owner Hamoudi Sabri, who opened the lot to the homeless in July, and city officials seeking its closure. Sabri faces fines of about $15,000. Mayor Jacob Frey announced the camp would be cleared immediately after the crime scene investigation, calling it a danger to the community.
Sabri criticised the city's response, urging trauma counselling and emergency shelter instead of displacement. The shootings add to a violent summer in Minneapolis, including the assassination of state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and a church mass shooting that killed two children.
