The Police Commissioner has urged students at a school rocked by gun deaths to help the community "break the silence, stop the violence and keep the peace".

Michael DeSilva visited Victor Scott Primary School yesterday to meet Malaikah Abdul-Jabbar, the young author of 'Stop the Shooting' a children's book which pleas for an end to gang violence.

He also spoke about Bermuda's latest gun murder victim, George Lynch. The death of the 40-year-old on Wednesday is the second tragedy to hit the school in just over a month.

Mr. Lynch's pregnant wife and the mother of his two children is Victor Scott P6 teacher, Nekesha Holdipp.

Yesterday, the Police Commissioner revealed to the schoolchildren that Ms Holdipp was actually one of his former students, as a young recruit to the Bermuda Police Service in the 1990s.

"Your teacher Ms Holdipp, who had very bad news two days ago and is sadly not here this morning, didn't always used to be a schoolteacher," he said.

"Another job she had before she was a teacher was that she was a Police officer, from 1996 for three years.

"And the really cool part is, guess who her teacher was when she came to Police training school? Yes, me."

Mr. DeSilva told the students: "We are all keeping Ms Holdipp in our thoughts and prayers. But when she comes back and is feeling better there's a secret you can let her know, that I was her teacher.

"And we were very sad to see her go at the Police Service, because she was as good a Police officer as she was a teacher, so you are very lucky."

Mr. DeSilva, who at one stage asked the children to hold up their arms and hold hands as a show of unity, also praised seven-year-old Malaikah on her book 'Stop the Shooting'.

The youngster was inspired to write it after the murder of Kimwandae Walker, the father of one of her classmates, on the Victor Scott playing field less than five weeks ago.

The 35-year-old was gunned down in front of his two children and dozens of families, as they flew kites at the school to celebrate Good Friday.

Malaikah wrote and illustrated her book to show violence through the eyes of a child. Up to 1,000 copies were published with the help of various organisations, including YouthNet.

One of those copies, signed by the author, was sent to the Commissioner himself.

Yesterday Mr. DeSilva said: "It touched me that Malaikah took the time to write to me and autograph it, and so I thought, I've got to come down here and meet her and all the boys and girls she goes to school with.

"Sadly, things have changed over the last few days and the school has had another bit of bad news. It is the third piece of bad news this school has had this year (January murder victim Perry Puckerin also has a daughter at Victor Scott), and that's really sad and tragic, but that's really what the book is all about, isn't it?

"Sometimes life is very sad and very hard to deal with, but we can get through, and we will get through."

He said: "There's three points Malaikah makes in her book, and we're all going to work together to make things different.

"Malaikah's message is, break the silence, stop the violence and keep the peace."

The Commissioner told the children that as a community, people needed to come together to "galvanise", to make themselves stronger.

He added: "And if anyone can be a shining example of 'don't ever give up', it's the boys and girls here at Victor Scott."