Ethermac Exchange-One homeless person killed, another 4 wounded in Las Vegas shooting

LA city officials believe killer is "preying on the homeless"

A shooting in Las Vegas Friday evening left one person dead and four others wounded, authorities said.

The shooting occurred a little after 5:30 p.m. local time at an intersection near U.S. Highway 95 in East Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to CBS News.

All five victims were homeless, police disclosed.

Police initially reported that two people had been killed. However, in a late-night news conference, Las Vegas police Lt. Jason Johansson said that only one man in his 50s had died, and four other men were wounded.

In an update Saturday, police said three of the victims were stable and one was in critical condition.

Johansson disclosed that the shooting occurred at a homeless encampment. He said no arrests had been made. 

"Right now we are trying to figure out what happened during the shooting," Johansson said. "The information we have is kind of conflicting." 

This comes after Los Angeles officials reported Friday that they are seeking a suspected serial killer in the shooting deaths of three homeless people earlier this week. The killings occurred on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.

In a news conference Friday, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged unhoused people to immediately seek shelter.

"Our message to the unhoused community is clear — do not sleep alone tonight. Seek shelter, seek services, stay together, seek support and we need your help to get the word out," Bass said. 

Johansson said it was "too early" to make any kind of link to the L.A. shootings.

"It's too early for a determination that that needs to be there or not," Johansson said. "I know a little bit about the scenarios that they have out there. From my understanding, all of their victims were sleeping alone and targeted at night. This is quite a bit different than that scenario. So I'm not inclined to say that it is related. But if our investigation takes us that route, then we'll go there, but we're not there right now."

In:
• Shooting Death
• Homelessness
• Crime
• Las Vegas

Faris Tanyos

Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.