Haunted by my daughter’s death
Speaking after a string of horrific gang-related murders in London, Ms Shakespeare said she was not surprised by the rise of gun crime in the UK and described it as “a disease without a cure”.
She said: “Letisha’s death still haunts me to this day. Every time I hear about a shooting on the TV or the radio, it brings back all the memories.” She described the death this week of 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne – an innocent victim caught between feuding gun gangs in Tottenham, north London – as “a tragedy”.
The still-grieving mum said: “It’s brought back memories of when Letisha was shot, at the same age.
“It’s just horrible when you think that 15 years down the line, we are still turning on the TV and radio and learning someone else has been shot dead.
“We should not become complacent to the issue of violent crime because unfortunately, there seem to be too many quick-fix strategies put in place.
“There are too many gaps. Funds for organisations against violent crime tend to just be for three months and that can’t resolve a problem that has festered for years.”
Ms Shakespeare blamed mobile phone cameras and social media for fuelling lawlessness and said more needed to be done to educate youngsters, especially those from poor backgrounds.
She said: “We have to show them that there is another way, that they don’t have to resort to gun crime or street violence.
“There seem to be so many arguments online that then spill out, unfortunately, on to the streets.”
Ms Shakespeare recently visited New York, 15 years after her daughter’s death, and was not surprised to learn that London’s murder rate is now worse.
She said: “I prayed back then that we never got the level of gun crime of New York. I said we needed to contain the problem.
“I’m not surprised at all that London’s murder rate is now higher than New York’s.
“Gun and knife crime isn’t going to go away unless things are put in place to actually defuse it.”