Second homeless encampment shooting in as many days leaves two dead in south Minneapolis

For the second time in as many days, there's been a deadly shooting inside a homeless encampment in Minneapolis.

Sunday afternoon, two men were found with gunshot wounds to the head in a camp located 44th and Snelling, just north of Minnehaha Falls.

"Homeless encampments are simply not the answer," said Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey. "You've heard me ad nauseum say this exact same thing. Yet again, we have more people that are dead. We need to be honest and realistic about what it happening right now. We need to call a spade a spade."

One man was also wounded in the shooting, and he remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

Officials say homicide investigators are working to determine the sequence of events that led up to the shooting, which includes the possibility of suspects who left the scene on foot.

Three adult men were initially detained but were cleared and released.

The weekend's first homeless encampment shooting incident was before dawn Saturday morning.  One was found dead and two wounded at the makeshift camp at the intersection of 21st Street East and 15th Street South.

That's located in the Ventura Villiage neighborhood, a block south of Franklin Avenue.

"We have known for months that the community here has serious concerns with people in encampments, people sleeping outside," said Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara.  "As soon as one encampment is cleared, another one pops up somewhere else and crime in the area immediately raises."

O'Hara on Sunday quoted statistics that he said shows one-fourth of all shooting incidents in the Third Precinct happen within 500 feet of a homeless encampment.

Police are trying to find out if the two shooting incidents are related in any way.