Devastated father Danny Crockwell last night insisted the Christmas shootings were not a revenge attack for his son Shaki's murder.

Mr. Crockwell said the Boxing Day gun death of Aquil Richardson, 30, brought back horrific memories of the day Shaki was shot dead on the Railway Trail in August.

But he said the time between his son's death and the three shootings over Christmas — four months — was too long to suggest retaliation was a motive.

At Shaki's funeral, his cousin Pastor Damon Hendrickson had delivered an emotional rallying cry, telling the victim's friends: "You disrespect his family if you come here today and leave here with thoughts of vengeance and malice, because that's not what we want.

"Just how many more shootings will we have to read about in the newspapers before we get it? How many more Shaki Crockwell funerals will we have to go to?"

Last night, asked if he thought the latest shootings were revenge, Danny Crockwell told The Royal Gazette: "No. It's nothing to do with that. We don't even know why Shaki was shot, so how can it be revenge?

"Trust me, if it was revenge it would not have been four months after. This has nothing to do with Shaki. That's all we can see anyway. I don't know what it's all about."

Father-of-three Mr. Richardson, who was in the car with Shaundae Jones when Mr. Jones was shot dead in 2003, was also a friend of Shaki.

Tina Crane, Danny Crockwell's fiancée, said: "Shaki used to know him. He was not a close, close friend, but he would hail him up if he saw him because he was a cool guy."

Pointing to another reason why she believes the killings are not linked, Ms Crane added: "There were five gunshots with Aquil. The person didn't care who it hit to do it like that. Shaki was different. Shaki was numbered."

Mr. Richardson was shot dead at about 9 p.m. on Boxing Day in Camp Hill, Southampton. In the same incident, 25-year-old Levar Smith was shot in the legs.

In the early hours of Christmas Day, Jakai Harford, 24, was shot in the shoulder, also in Camp Hill. Mr. Smith and Mr. Harford were released from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital yesterday.

The shootings are widely believed to be gang-related, although Police have not confirmed any link.

Recalling his first thoughts when he heard about the shootings, Mr. Crockwell said: "Shaki went straight through my brain. I thought: 'Not another one.' Four months and two days after Shaki's been killed: another one.

"What's going on? It's got to stop. Everybody is probably related to each other, and they go around shooting each other.

"We have just got to get ourselves together and we not there yet.

"They have got little children growing up. The persons they leave hurting are the parents, the children, the family. Aquil has left three children behind.

"They have these drive-by shootings. What if a child gets shot? It could be a granny coming out of her house?"

Mr. Crockwell called for Premier Ewart Brown and members from both sides of the political fence to lead by example.

"The Premier needs to step in with whoever is the leader of the UBP and come together and stop the violence," he said.

"You see the PLP and UBP fighting against each other and you see young blacks fighting each other.

"How can you expect them to come together if they look at their leaders fighting each other?" he said.

Despite requests from this newspaper, the Premier has not spoken publicly in response to the latest shootings.

Deputy Premier Paula Cox has led Government's calls for peace, as she did following the death of Mr. Crockwell.

Reflecting on the atmosphere around their Middletown home, Ms Crane said: "As soon as it goes dark, I bring the kids in. We got a call saying there was gunshot in Court Street.

"We didn't hear anything, and everyone outside was still playing cards. But you have still got to take it seriously because you can't be sure it's a rumour."