A horrific shooting at a homeless encampment in a major American city, with the gunman vanishing into the night, is a tragic symbol of the times in which President Joe Biden led the country.
Two individuals were killed and three more were injured following a gunshot at the campsite in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday, according to KNSV-TV.
“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.”
According to officials, all five of the victims of gunshot wounds were homeless. University Medical Center was the destination for them.
According to early reports, one person had died and four others had been injured; later reports stated that a second victim—whom KVVU-TV had initially believed to be in critical condition—had also died.
LVMPD spokesman Lt. Jason Johansson told the media at a briefing that the other three injured were expected to survive.
“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.
The police, however, said that no specific description of the suspect—including height and weight—was available.
“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.
It is known that homelessness is a widespread issue throughout America, not just in Las Vegas.
The U.K. Daily Mail published an article in September about “Sin City’s growing homeless crisis,” citing 6,566 individuals as the official figure of homelessness in southern Nevada in 2023.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said that this represented a 14% rise over the 5,645 figure 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.”
Moreover, when details are examined, the numbers appear considerably worse. In Clark County—home of Las Vegas—among those tallied, 1,614 reported drug addiction concerns, 1,887 had mental health issues, and 16,251 were expected to be homeless in the county at some point in the year.
That would be “more than double the greatest total ever recorded in Las Vegas—in 2015, 7,509 homeless people were counted,” according to a report from the Daily Mail.
Of course, there is a clear correlation between homelessness and criminality, which is why encampment sweeps are taking place in places like Oregon, California, and New York City. Nonetheless, the underlying issues remain: acceptance of homelessness, death of employment prospects, housing scarcity, leniency toward drug-related offenses, and absence of a strategy to address widespread mental health emergencies.
All of these issues are products of the creation or encouragement of liberalism and progressivism. All of the sweeps in the world won’t stop more shootings like the one that occurred in Las Vegas on Friday, nor will they stop other crimes and outrages of a similar kind, until the political attitude that fosters the problem is addressed at its core.