A gang interventionist has warned the latest gun fatality could widen the conflict as the death of Shane Minors was "outside the rules of engagement".

Pastor Leroy Bean, founder of CARTEL (Challenging and Reclaiming the True Essence of Life), said Mr. Minors was an innocent victim unfairly targeted by gangbangers.

Anti-gang campaigner Rev. Bean knew Mr. Minors personally and said the 30-year-old had even expressed aspirations to him of becoming a politician.

"I am very shocked to hear of his death and my condolences go out to Shane's family," said Rev. Bean.

"He was a very nice guy, and a good family man who took care of his daughter. I know he was not involved in gang activity."

He said: "I do believe that the current gangs right now are going outside the rules of engagement.

"When innocent parties are starting to be brought into these shootings, they have stepped outside the laws of the street.

"The normal rules are that if you've got a beef with someone, it's between you and this person. You just don't hit anybody because you can't get that person."

And he warned that the killing of non-gang members is likely to take the war "to another level".

"When you start to provoke innocent, hard-working people, you bring in another dynamic."

He explained: "When you bother their family or friends, you will force that family member or friend to get involved, and this will cause more upheavals and widen the conflict in Bermuda."

Rev. Bean added: 'If they (gangbangers) are going to do things, they need to stick to the targets instead of flying all over the place not that I am even condoning that."

The message he would give gang members he said, would be to "lay down your pride".

"You need to stop the violence and arrest this behaviour before it goes any further. Even though murders have been committed there is still hope and you can prevent any more people from dying.

"Please take personal responsibility and lay down your pride, and do this for your families and the whole island."

CARTEL seeks to educate against, but also support, youngsters who are seduced by the gangster lifestyle.

Concerned at the rise in youth violence in Bermuda, in May Rev. Bean invited a former Los Angeles Crip and ex-Blood to speak on the realities of gangbanging to schools, prisons and community forums.

Last month Zane Smith, a co-founder of the Crips and an anti-gang advocate in LA, also addressed public meetings on the Island. Mr. Smith was responsible for recruiting Stanley 'Tookie' Williams into the Crips one of its most notorious members.

In the past few days The Royal Gazette understands Government, the Governor and top echelons of the Bermuda Police Service have been holding crisis meetings, with an announcement on an action plan expected shortly.

Rev. Bean, of Transfiguration Ministries, said he believed the best stance the authorities could take would be "a hard and soft approach".

"You want to offer as much assistance as you can but if they refuse it, you have to take the hard approach," he said.

Earlier this week Premier Ewart Brown told the ZBM 'Let's Talk' programme that Government also had to focus on "the soft side" of the gang problem.

Dr. Brown said he recognised parenting was an issue, as gang members coming from single parent families was "a common thread throughout the (Caribbean) region".

"Absolutely there's a search to belong," he said.

"We have to look at the whole prism and that includes taking a look at the root causes and trying to do things with the social structure.

"Many of these young men and women come from a situation where there's a lot of social dysfunction and the only structure they find is the gang culture. That's a family," he said.

"We have to find a balance. In order to attack this problem we're going to need to do this from both sides.

"There's no magic bullet for this so we are opening up and asking the community to make creative suggestions and pass them on to us."

Dr. Brown added that legislation in regards to parenting was also being considered.

"The Attorney General's Chambers is extremely busy with the issue of parental responsibility," he said.