Police to add detectives to gangs unit after day of two shootings

Police to add detectives to gangs unit after day of two shootings
Shaamini Yogaretnam More from Shaamini Yogaretnam

Published on: December 29, 2014Last Updated: December 29, 2014 10:24 PM EST

(Police tow away a Nissan Altima with bullet holes in the drivers' door after a shooting on Bloomsbury Crescent on Monday.)

Just hours after Ottawa police decided Monday to beef up the investigative arm of its anti-gang unit to deal with a record number of shootings, officers responded to the city’s second report of gunfire in less than 24 hours.

Patrol officers were on scene near Bloomsbury Crescent and Regency Terrace, in the Woodroffe Avenue-Baseline Road area, late Monday afternoon after a man was hit twice in a volley of shots fired in a drive-by shooting.

And just as a Monday morning shooting victim had, the latest victim took a taxi to hospital, leaving police to search the area around a white sedan with a bullet-riddled driver’s side door that had crashed into a garbage bin.

The shooting — the city’s 48th of the year — punctuated a day of meetings prompted by mainly gang-related and targeted shootings that have spiked in recent weeks. Days before year’s end, police were swamped with open investigations, unco-operative victims, and searches for suspects who seem to have little reluctance to resort to gunfire.

The force previously added officers to its Direct Action Response Team (DART), which works to suppress gang activity through surveillance and monitoring. Officers from the drug unit and a surveillance team were on loan after the city hit 45 shootings in mid-December.