People need to have a change of heart and stop pointing the finger at the families of shooting victims.This is the cry for help from Elder Kevin Santucci who has personally reached out to the heartbroken relatives of Bermuda’s murder victims.He has spent his free time visiting the families in their own homes to offer his support and show that not everyone has turned their backs on them.There have been 17 gun murders in Bermuda and nine of the families agreed to meet Elder Santucci in what he called “very, very emotional scenes”.Elder Santucci, who serves at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said: “I wanted to get a better idea of what these families were going through. I had a genuine concern about their well-being.“I believe we need to reach out and help these people as together we can bring some healing to their lives.“The community is the heart of our lives but we are turning our backs on the very people who need us most. Speculating does not help in aiding these families.“We shouldn’t be talking about gang affiliations and pointing down on the families, we should be helping to bridge the gap with them.”Elder Santucci tracked down the families of every murder victim and met up with nine of them over the space of the week. He said it was his calling to be “on the frontline” spending much of that week walking through the 42 and Parkside heartlands.Elder Santucci said he found all the families were “very appreciative” of him visiting and the meetings gave him an inside knowledge of the impact violence was having on our communities.He said: “There were so many tears, at times family members had to stop talking as they were so overcome with emotion.“Some of these families had received counselling while others were trying to cope without. Some of them were living in a fearful state.“But the thing all these families had in common is that the pain is very real. These families are still reeling; the depth of loss is tremendous to these families.“Regardless of whether the murder was months or years ago, the pain is very present, it was never distant”.Elder Santucci remains in touch with the families and is planning follow-up meetings to show that he is there for them.He is also calling on others to step forward as he remains a strong believe that individuals can work with agencies to “make a difference”.Elder Santucci said: “We know the names of the victims, but how many people have been there for the families in their time of need.“We are all affected, it’s our Island and we can all become part of the solution.“We cannot wait on Government, Government has got enough to do. We need a combined effort, I really believe we need to do more. We can stretch out our resources and work as a team. There is something we can all do to make Bermuda a better place.”The murder family meetings were organised as part of the run-up to the Seventh-day Adventist’s ‘Community and Family Matter’ week-long series of events.Nightly debates were then held with different sectors of the community invited to “the neutral setting” of the Bermuda Institute Auditorium. There were events for singles, men, women and married couples focusing on violence and how the community can move forward.Up to 60 people attended the nightly sessions and guest speakers included community activist Gina Spence, Dr Leonard Gibbons and men’s expert Pete Saunders.The families of the murder victims were invited and relatives of Kimwandae Walker, Shaundae Jones, Kellon Hill and James Lawes used it as an opportunity to “publicly speak about what they’d gone through”.Elder Santucci said: “It’s part of the community healing process. We wanted to find out what was weighing people down and wanted to try to build some sort of stability and balance. The events were a huge success and we’re planning similar events in the future”.