At 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday, police in Seattle responded to a report of gunshots at a homeless encampment south of downtown. After searching the wooded camp. called "The Jungle," police found five victims. One woman died at the scene and a man died later at the hospital, police said. The other three victims, age 25 to 45, had gunshot wounds in their chests, backs, and abdomens. Police haven't arrested anybody yet, but they are searching for two men. "We have reason to believe it was very targeted," Assistant Police Chief Robert Merner said of the shooting, thought to have arisen from a dispute between acquaintances.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (pictured), who had been preparing to give a televised speech on homelessness Tuesday night, instead addressed the shooting, asking, "I can't help but wonder 'Did I act too late?'" Murray had declared a state of emergency for the city's homeless problem in November, and on Tuesday night he said that Seattle is "involved in a homelessness crisis the like that we have not seen since the Great Depression. There is no simple answer." The Jungle, he added, has been "unmanageable and out of control for almost two decades."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How global conflicts are reshaping flight pathsUnder the Radar Airlines are having to take longer and convoluted routes to avoid conflict zones
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayorIn The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all timeThe Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confessionspeed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulderspeed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC paradespeed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
-
2 Israel Embassy staff shot dead at DC Jewish museumspeed read The suspected gunman chanted 'free, free Palestine'
-
Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'speed read A car bombing injured four people and damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California
