The recent spate of shootings in Ottawa, including two incidents on Monday, are a sign of the escalating turf war over the trade of crack cocaine and other illegal drugs, according to a criminal defence lawyer.

Image | Bank Street shooting

Caption: Police closed off Bank Street the morning of Dec. 29 after a man was shot in the back. It was the first of two shootings to take place in Ottawa that day. (CBC)

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Joe Addelman, a criminal defence lawyer with Addelman Baum and Gilbert, told CBC News that gang culture has changed in the last 10 years.

"Similar as there's been an evolution in the substances being trafficked, there's been an evolution in the type of violence being used to enforce or to protect or to retaliate. So you've seen cannabis to heroin to crack cocaine; you see fist fights to knife fights to gun fights," Addelman said.

With two shootings on Monday alone, Ottawa has now seen 48 incidents of gun violence in 2014, a record high.

Even before Monday's shootings, the Ottawa Police Service said it had already assigned more officers to gang-related beats. Now the police service is promising to dedicate even more investigative resources.

Deputy Chief Jill Skinner said the shootings are related to power struggles brought on by two major gang busts this year.

"We made a number of arrests and confiscated a number of guns, as well as seized a lot of drugs," Skinner said. "As a result of those things, that creates instability in gangs and they start to challenge each other for that power and control of the gang itself."

Ottawa police Acting Staff Sgt. Ken Bryden, who leads the guns and gangs unit, said the internal fighting is a new development.

"The infighting among some of these street gangs is completely opposite to what I would have experienced in my tenure alone in the guns and gangs section," Bryden said.

Addelman suggests it’s an oversimplification, however, to say the fight is in internal struggle. He argued two groups may share gang affiliation but have little else in common.

"What we're seeing now in my view is one or more groups of young drug dealers trying to push out the established groups of drug dealers in these rougher parts of town — the housing projects around Penny Drive, Michele Heights and the south end also," he said.

The first shooting on Monday happened at about 2:30 a.m. downtown on Bank Street near Slater Street. Three shots were fired outside on the street and a man was hit in the back. The man took a taxi to hospital where he was treated for a bullet wound.

The second shooting happened at about 4:50 p.m. on Bloomsbury Crescent, near Woodroffe Avenue and Baseline Road.

Police said one young man was shot on the road after multiple bullets were fired in what investigators believe was a targeted attack. Residents in the area told CBC News they heard about seven shots.

Moments after the shots were fired, a white sedan riddled with bullets crashed into a dumpster and a man was spotted fleeing the scene, residents said.

The victim suffered one gunshot wound and was conscious and breathing when he arrived at hospital, police said.

The guns and gangs unit is investigating both incidents.