Los Angeles Officials Search for Killer Said to Be ‘Preying on the Unhoused’

The Los Angeles police are searching for a man they believe shot three homeless people dead this week, and officials on Friday urged anyone sleeping on the streets of Southern California to seek shelter or safe communities until the killer is found.

The three victims — all men who were in alleys or open areas by themselves — were shot and killed in the early morning hours, said Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department. The killings took place in different locations on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.

“This is a killer who is preying on the unhoused,” Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. “Many friends and family members know how to reach their unhoused relatives. We need you to contact them today. We need you to tell them about this danger.”

Chief Moore said that investigators had discovered similarities among the three killings, based on physical evidence and camera footage, that led them to believe the events were connected. Federal and county investigators are also working on the case and trying to determine whether there have been more victims.

The authorities asked the public to help them to identify a dark-colored sedan and a person appearing in a surveillance image, whom they described only as a male.

Mr. Moore told reporters that he was particularly concerned about homeless people who might be isolated away from larger encampments, which often function as small communities.

At the news conference, the mayor said that emergency shelters that typically open during severe weather events would be made available for homeless residents.

Dozens of leaders at shelters in Los Angeles were called to an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon where police urged them to advise anyone staying on the streets not to sleep alone.

“The Police Department has obviously seen something that disturbs them and wants to get the word out — they’re being very proactive,” said David Prentice, the C.E.O. and president of the Midnight Mission, a longtime shelter in downtown Los Angeles. “Our outreach teams are having conversations with people who tend to isolate and be solo.”

Mr. Prentice said that it was not a moment of panic but more an elevated security situation. The organization already has a policy of taking in anyone who needs a place to sleep. Those who are resistant to shelters can stay in the outdoor courtyard, where security has been increased.

The killings highlighted the profound vulnerability of Los Angeles’s homeless residents, who endure harsh conditions on the streets, night after night, in one of the nation’s most intractable humanitarian crises. The last count, released in June, found that 46,260 people were homeless in the city of Los Angeles.

Last year, Stockton, Calif., about 80 miles east of San Francisco, was unnerved by the killings of seven people, some of them homeless, in the city and a nearby county. The local authorities said it was the work of a serial killer. A suspect in the killings, Wesley Brownlee, has since been charged with seven counts of murder.

This spring, the college town of Davis, Calif., was rattled by three stabbings that left two people dead, including a local pacifist who slept on a park bench. One woman, who was living in a homeless encampment, was injured.

“The public is often very frightened of people who experience homelessness,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco. “But what they don’t realize is that people experiencing homelessness are frightened all the time.”

Those experiencing homelessness “don’t have a door to lock,” she said. They are exposed, not just to the elements, but to shocking levels of physical violence.

Dr. Kushel said that in a recent statewide survey — widely considered a definitive report on homelessness in California — her team had found that more than a third of people who were homeless had been sexually or physically assaulted since they were last housed. She said that homeless people were more likely to be the victims of violence perpetrated by a stranger, rather than someone known to them.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.