The body count in Abbotsford, B.C., is growing as police deal with two deaths in less than 12 hours.

A body was found in a grassy field close to the Abbotsford Chilliwack border just after 7:00 a.m. Tuesday.

Police taped off the area behind the Yellow Barn Country Produce store just off the Number 3 Road exit on the Trans-Canada Highway. Both the Abbotsford Police and B.C.'s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are investigating.

Const. Casey Vinet says officers still aren't sure how the unidentified man died, or if the death is linked to a targeted hit in a rural area in Abbotsford late Monday night.

In that case, police discovered the victim of an apparent gunshot wound slumped behind the wheel of a car in the 36400-block of Bateman Road. The side window was shot out and the car's bumper was resting against the fence to adjacent Bateman Park. The victim, a man in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

His identity has not been released and police aren't saying if the shooting is gang or drug-related.

Only hours later, someone shot at a home in the 6200-block of Riverside Drive. The residents were at home at the time but no one was hurt.

Const. Roger Gossell says police don't know what the motive was for the shooting.

"Our investigators are there right now and the investigation is at its preliminary stages at this point in time," he said.

Battleground B.C.

The entire Metro Vancouver region has been the battle ground for a violent gang war in recent months. The region has recorded nearly four dozen shootings, 18 of them fatal, since mid-January.

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu has admitted the region is in the midst of a "brutal" gang war that has seen more than 100 shootings in recent years.

Federal Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan recently suggested the area is the "gang capital" of Canada.

The federal government has promised changes to the Criminal Code targeting gangs and big-time drug dealers, including mandatory prison terms for gun crime, an automatic first-degree murder sentence for gang-related killings and new penalties for drive-by shootings.

Police have announced several gang arrests in recent weeks but the Vancouver police have said the onslaught of violence has used up half of their yearly investigation in just the first two months of 2009.

With files from The Canadian Press