Bermuda's growing code of silence which stops people informing on murderers risks tipping the country into mayhem if it is not reversed, Public Safety Minister David Burch has warned.

He said Police knew the likely killer of Shaki Crockwell but were powerless because the public were not helping.

He told The Royal Gazette: "Families in their homes have to take up the mantle and decide it is their responsibility to raise their children and save this country from anarchy."

Senator Burch was asked if he was disappointed about the response to appeals for witnesses to the murder of the 25-year-old national footballer who was shot in the neck on the Railway Trail, Devonshire on Friday night.

He said: "It falls to us in the way we raise young people why they won't come forward and participate in this society and recognise that by their silence they are contributing to not being in a positive place."

Parents needed to do far more to encourage youngsters to face up to their responsibilities, said Sen Burch.

"It is not something that can be legislated or that I can stand up and pronounce as a minister and have it happen."

He added: "Police are reasonably confident they know who it is. They cannot get anyone to confirm that so it is anecdotal."

The gun killing is the third in the last four years - Shaundae Jones was shot dead in Dockyard in 2003 and Jason Lightbourne was slayed in Paget just over a year ago. Asked if the Police were now under massive pressure to crack the case after two previous unsolved gun murders Sen. Burch said: "I think people understand quite clearly what the challenges with the Police are.

"Police are actually doing their job, they are able and capable of solving the crimes. They just can't prosecute because that is not something they can do on their own.

"I believe all three of these murders can easily be solved if people are prepared to come forward and provide information to the Police so they can secure a conviction.

"It has very little to do with the vast majority of people in this country who don't know anything about these matters. But there are people in this country who do know.

"We have tried offering money - rewards. They can give information to Crimestoppers anonymously, nothing seems to work - there seems to be a code of silence amongst a certain element of the community.

"We all have to work at how we break that code if we want to live in a country which is peaceful and without murders."

Sen. Burch said he was surprised people still didn't understand that when you called Crimestoppers you spoke to an agency in Miami - not a policeman in Bermuda - to ensure complete confidentiality.

"They certainly don't pass on any phone numbers or anything like that.

"We are testing at the moment the ability to text message into that number, but it's an 0800 number so we are not sure of the technical challenges. That may raise the level of comfort that it is a text message not someone's voice being recorded."

More needed to be done to break the code of silence said Sen. Burch.

"We will try whatever we can to break that cycle but it is going to require far greater efforts outside this ministry - health and family services, the schools, parents - everyone.

"We either want to live in peace or we don't - and if we do then we all need to do something to try and fix it.

"We see it on an almost daily basis - people get beat up, people get chopped and they won't prosecute. I don't understand it."

He said people's fears over retaliatory violence were real. "But until someone stands up and takes a stand - 'I am not going to be chopped and keep silent - I want justice for being assaulted..

"This generation doesn't have a real sense of the value of life. I am old so it is something I have great difficulty trying to process and understand. But it must start in the home - a lot earlier than when they become teenagers."

He said faith as a foundation for values had been lost which had aided the decline.

Lack of witnessess has also hampered Police efforts to tackle Bermuda's huge drug trade.

Recently Police Assistant Commissioner Bryan Bell said Police knew who the major drug dealers were but were unable to convict them.

Asked about that situation Sen. Burch said: "As much as Government and Police forces try to counter this certainly the drug dealers have far more resources than we do, they are constantly looking at ways to counter the measures we put in place."