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.
Authorities found five people shot when they responded to a report of shots fired in a thickly wooded area known as "The Jungle" Tuesday, Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole said.
Officers responded to the shooting just before Mayor Ed Murray began his live address regarding a state of emergency in Seattle for homelessness.
Authorities pronounced one person dead at the scene and a second dead at Harborview Medical Center. Three other victims underwent surgery Tuesday night.
Authorities did not identify them.
Investigators said two persons of interest remained at large in the aftermath of the shooting. They declined to identify them.
Seattle Assistant Police Chief Robert Merner said a preliminary investigation indicated the shooting was "very targeted."
"We don't think they were targeted because they're homeless, they were targeted specifically because of who they were," O'Toole said.
After his address on the state of emergency for homelessness in the city, Murray spoke with reporters at the scene of the shooting. He said The Jungle "has been unmanageable and out of control for almost two decades."
Last fall, Murray declared the civil state of emergency because of the growing number of homeless people in Seattle and King County.
"I can't help but wonder, did I act too late?" Murray said at a news conference Tuesday night. "Maybe I should have issued the state of emergency months earlier."
The shooting was the largest in Seattle since May 2012, when five people died and one suffered injuries in a shooting at Cafe Racer.
In June 2014, one Seattle Pacific University student died and two other suffered injuries in an on-campus shooting.
The Jungle homeless encampment has a history of violence.
In June 2009, 55-year-old Bernardino Maceo-Toirac was shot multiple times in the wooded area known for homeless camping.
One month later, Warren J. Bothwell’s death marked the second homicide for the year at The Jungle. Authorities found Bothwell, 45, dead at the scene with an apparent chest wound after responding to the encampment around 12:30 a.m.
No charges were filed in either case.
