Calgary police say the shooting incident that killed three people at a Vietnamese restaurant in the southeast part of the city on New Year's Day was a gang-related crime.

Deputy Chief Murray Stooke told reporters Friday that the particulars of the crime have led police to conclude that the shooting was "a targeted attack and gang-related."

He said three people walked into the Bolsa Restaurant late Thursday afternoon and fired upon a table where a woman and two men were sitting.

The woman was unharmed in the incident, but a third man who was to join the group at the table was gunned down outside the front door of the restaurant.

"There was great potential for innocent victims to be at risk and we had innocent victims killed last year," he said.

"One young lady was in a restaurant and was not involved except to be out with her boyfriend at the time of that shooting."

One of the three men killed was wearing a ballistic vest, Stooke said.

Killings linked to ongoing gang conflict

Stooke also said that one of the deceased was a known gang member and police "believe this matter is related to the ongoing violence between two Calgary gangs."

Acting Staff Sergeant Gord Eiriksson, of the Organized Crime Operations Centre, said that the feud has been going on for the best part of a decade.

"We don't really have a specific trigger for the violence," he told CTV.ca in a telephone interview from Calgary on Friday.

"This started six to seven years ago by two groups of individuals. They were essentially one group and due to whatever instigated the rift, it broke into two groups and they've been at odds ever since."

He estimates that between 15 and 20 people have been killed as a result.

Eiriksson said the conflict between the two groups started with fistfights, but has escalated to much more serious types of violence.

While Calgary police do not identify gangs by name, Eiriksson said the two groups were composed mostly of members with Asian backgrounds -- although they do hold ties to associates from other backgrounds.

Stooke said police have concerns the conflict will get worse before it gets better.

"We are concerned that this back and forth retaliatory conflict will continue in 2009," Stooke told reporters.

"However, we're undertaking all the steps we can to intervene and put an end to that conflict."

The investigation

Duty Inspector Dean LaGrange told CTV.ca on Thursday that police responded to a call of a reported shooting at 3:50 p.m.

At least ten people were in the Bolsa Restaurant at the time of the shooting.

The three men were eating in the main part of the Vietnamese restaurant when they were shot.

Investigators are looking at a number of suspects and it is believed they fled the scene in a silver vehicle.

Calgary has had many problems with gang activity in recent months, which police say is linked to more than one-third of city homicides.

Stooke said Calgary now has one of the highest homicide rates in Canada -- a symptom of growing violence seen in Alberta over the past five years.

Police investigate separate Jan. 1 death

Prior to the shooting incident, the Calgary police major crime unit was investigating the death of a man in his early twenties who died after an apparent altercation at a pub in the northeast part of the city.

"At this point there's very little known about this victim. It's believed he's new to Canada. Police are in the process of trying to locate his next of kin," Acting Staff Sgt. Patty McCallum said Thursday.

Police have since charged Northwind Hart, 32, with second-degree murder. He is scheduled to appear in a provincial court on Jan. 14.

A second man is in custody but no charges have been laid.

Two other men involved in the altercation were treated in hospital and released.

With files from The Canadian Press, CTV Calgary and ctvcalgary.ca