It’s a sad sign of the times in President Joe Biden’s America — a mass shooting at a homeless encampment in a major American city, with the gunman slipping away into the night.
According to KNSV-TV, two people are dead and three others are injured after a Friday shooting at the encampment in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) responded to a report of a shooting in the area of Charleston Boulevard and Honolulu Street near U.S. 95 around 5:34 p.m. on Friday,” the outlet reported.
“Arriving officers responded to a homeless encampment to find five victims shot.”
All five who received gunshot wounds were homeless, police said. They were taken to University Medical Center.
Initial reports indicated one person had died and four others were injured; subsequent reports indicated a second victim, who had initially been reported in critical condition by KVVU-TV, had passed away.
The other three wounded were expected to survive, according to a media briefing by LVMPD spokesman Lt. Jason Johansson.
“At the time of this update, police are still searching for the suspect, who was described as a black man in a hoodie who ran and then drove away from the scene in a black sedan,” KVVU reported.
However, police said there was no concrete description of the suspect — height, weight, etc.
Will the homeless crisis soon grow worse?
Yes: 100% (2 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“He’s got a pretty good step to him,” a witness who said the suspect ran past their tent told the station.
“He wasn’t running flat-footed, that’s for sure. But he didn’t go up the way like they told officers, you know,” Jason Ferrer said.
“They’re expected to do that around here because anybody who cooperates is looked at as a snitch and, you know, they’re pretty much dealt with.”
“Police are also working to determine whether this was an isolated incident,” the station noted.
What is known is that homelessness isn’t an “isolated” problem, either in Las Vegas or America as a whole.
In September, the U.K. Daily Mail reported on “Sin City’s growing homeless crisis.,” with 6,566 people counted as officially homeless in southern Nevada in 2023.
This, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, was a 14 percent increase over the 5,645 count in 2022.
“The release of the Homeless Census Count underscores the ongoing need in our region to address and manage homelessness,” said Abigail Frierson, deputy county manager.
“While these numbers capture a moment in time, they reinforce what our social service teams and community partners are dealing with each day as they interface with those who are unhoused and work to connect them with temporary shelter, wraparound services, and eventually permanent shelter. Clark County has served thousands of people who have experienced homelessness over the past few challenging years, and we will continue to foster innovative solutions to best serve our vulnerable populations.”
Furthermore, the numbers look even worse when specifics are looked at: In Clark County, home to Las Vegas, 1,614 people among those counted had substance abuse issues, 1,887 had mental health problems, and a total of 16,251 people were estimated to experience homelessness in the community at some point during the year.
That would be, the Daily Mail reported, “more than double the highest figure ever recorded in Las Vegas – in 2015, 7,509 homeless people were counted.”
Of course, the link between homelessness and crime is an obvious one — which is why, from Oregon to California to New York City, encampment sweeps are happening. That doesn’t remove the root problems, however: tolerance of homelessness, lack of economic opportunities, housing shortages, softness on drug crime and no plan to deal with mass mental health crises.
These are all problems that liberalism and progressivism have either created or encouraged. Without treating the root of the issue — namely, the political philosophy that engenders it — all the sweeps in the world won’t prevent more shootings like the one on Friday in Las Vegas, as well as other crimes and outrages of a similar nature.
