The death of Kellon Hill has been greeted with expressions of outrage throughout the community.

No murder is fair, but by all accounts Mr. Hill was an upstanding young man with a good future ahead of him. That makes his loss all the more tragic.

It is hard to avoid the feeling that it was just a matter of time before Bermuda, which had recorded two murders already this year, was likely to see another life taken.

And the odds were good that the victim would be young, black and male.

The outpourings of concern – in this column as well as elsewhere – are just as predictable. Again, we hear community leaders calling on people to "stop the madness". There will be diagnoses of what is wrong with this community that caused this death. Gangs, no doubt, will be blamed.

There will most likely be an upsurge in activity by the Police, Government agencies and the like.

And then, most likely, the community will sink back into its torpor. Those who are far removed from Mr. Hill's death will resume their daily lives. Those who are close to the crime will try to do the same, or will join the lonely voices, like Marsha Jones's, in trying to get the community to listen.

But will the community listen?

It would appear that there has not been much listening going on in recent weeks – and the media, including this newspaper, have to shoulder some of the blame for that.

There has been a steady drumbeat of violent crime in the last couple of weeks. According to Police reports, these have averaged about one robbery or assault every two days.

By many standards, that may seem low. But for Bermuda's small population, it is not, and it has been the consistency in both the timing and style of the crimes that have been most marked.

And we do not know for certain how many other robberies never get reported at all.

In the case of Mr. Hill, it appears that the Police investigation is going well and it would be dangerous to speculate on the exact cause of his death or who was responsible.

But in general terms, this community needs to acknowledge that:

• Three apparent murders in just eight months is far too high a rate;

• The victims of these crimes are overwhelmingly likely to be young, black males; and

• The spectre of gang activity almost always hangs over these crimes.

In autumn 2007, Premier Dr. Ewart Brown rejected a report on young black males carried out by Dr. Roy Wright and commissioned Columbia University professor Dr. Ronald Mincy to conduct a new study, which is due to be ready next year.

It is critical that this the deadline for this report be advanced, because this academic work has now been underway since 2005.

That of course, is not enough. Martha Dismont of the Family Centre says that all organisations involved with crime and youth need to come together to put together an overall strategy to solve this problem.

She is right and we need to do it now – before anyone else dies.