[UPDATED] Families of Maraval triple murder victims urge youth to make better choices

RELATIVES of the three men killed in a triple murder shooting incident on February 26 along Saddle Road near the Maraval police station say young people need to make better life decisions.

Antonio Trim, 29, Jevone Peters, 32, and Kirby Victor, 37, were in a car at Saddle Road, Maraval when they were ambushed by gunmen at around 5.30 pm on Monday.

The trio’s car was riddled with bullets and all three men died at the scene.

Speaking with reporters at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, none of the men's relatives was able to say exactly why they were targeted by gunmen.

Peters’ relatives described him as a loving, dependable family man who doted on his seven-year-old daughter.

“He was the most caring, outgoing person. He will come and pull you out any situation, no matter how late it is, how far it is. You could always rely on him.”

They added, “He was a wonderful father. He used to make sure his daughter have everything. Anything she want, he making sure he have that for her.”

They say his death has not been easy to deal with and his daughter is in tears.

“She knows. She processed it. She cried and, well, she knows she wouldn't be seeing him anymore.”

His family said they had no idea why he might have met such a violent death.

They said Peters was a construction worker and they did not know how he was involved with Trim and Victor.

Peters was driving the car in which the trio were killed and his father, Sean Peters, called on young people to “choose well” when making decisions.

“Make the decisions and think about the consequences of your actions. And I think that is about the best thing I could tell people. Think about the consequences of your actions.”

Trim’s family: 'Who don’t hear does feel'

One of Trim’s relatives told Newsday Trim had made some questionable decisions in his life.

The relative said Trim was spoken to about his life choices on several occasions.

“They will always talk to him and tell him xyz because he didn't need to do that…but you know children…You know how it does go. You make children but you don’t make their mind.”

The relative said Trim never listened and always had a retort when the issue was raised.

“He always have a plaster for a cut. Now look where he is”

“It reach the point where who don’t hear does feel now,” the relative added.

The relative urged other young people who might be making bad life choices to let Trim’s death serve as an example to them.

“I would only hope the children and them who looking and seeing will try to learn from it. But for some reason, they ent learning from it. They're still going down the same road. But crime don't pay. We know that. It don't pay."

He said people who know their relatives are involved in crime should keep talking to them, even if it turns out to be in vain.

“The most you could do is talking. It ent have an injection where you could inject sense in somebody.”

Victor’s family disappointed: Crime being 'facilitated'

Victor’s relatives said he “took the wrong track.”

They said he was originally from Carenage but had moved out of the area several years ago.

His father was dead and his mother lived abroad.

Since leaving the area, his family said they were less aware of his actions but they believed he kept his distance to “protect” them from any consequences of his wrongdoings.

“He went down the rabbit hole. How far down the rabbit hole? We don't know because if it’s one thing…he never exposed any of us to it. He kept it from us.”

Speaking about the crime situation plaguing the country, one relative said he was “very disappointed with the powers that be” in Trinidad and Tobago.

He said crime “could never be so prevalent and so successful” unless it was being facilitated by high-ranking members of society.

“That's the only way crime could be like this in this country.”

The relative said while the public sees murder as a major problem in Trinidad and Tobago, he believes that was just the end result of the real problem.

He pointed to a general sense of lawlessness and a lack of accountability as the starting point for crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We need as a country to start dealing with the little crime incidents. The small things that we see as insignificant that everybody is doing. We need to start focusing on that.”

“The problem in this society, as much as it is the murders and the home invasions, it's about the lawlessness in this country. Our citizenry is lawless.”

He added, “An individual doesn't born big and become a criminal and start to go and shoot people and rob someone. It starts from the little things and there is no accountability for the little things.”

The relative said unless the government can “get a handle” on the smaller crimes, the crime situation will not change.

“The lawlessness (is) in every walk of our society, from the white collar crime to the little petty crime on the streets. The littering, the man who feels you could just go and pee behind any building in Port of Spain. Every law is being broken in this country and there's no accountability, nobody's doing nothing about it.”

He warned if nothing is done, it will only be a matter of time before everyone feels the impact of crime.

“The wrongdoing is becoming accepted as the right. It is harder for somebody who is obeying the law to become successful in this country. It is easier for somebody who is breaking the law. That's how it is set up in this country right now and we need to change it because guess what? Nobody's immune to this.”

This story was originally published with the title "Families of Maraval triple murder victims urge youth to make better choices" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

Two relatives of the three men killed in a triple murder shooting incident near the Maraval police station say young people need to make better life decisions.

Antonio Trim, 29, Jevone Peters, 32, and Kirby Victor, 37, were in a car at Saddle Road, Maraval on Monday evening when they were ambushed by gunmen and their car was riddled with bullets.

The three men died at the scene.

None of the trio's relatives could say why they were targeted by gunmen.

But one of Trim’s relatives told Newsday, Trim made some questionable life decisions.

The relative said Trim was spoken to about his life choices on several occasions but ignored the advice offered to him.

Victor’s relatives, speaking with reporters at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, also said he “took the wrong track.”

“He went down the rabbit hole. How far down the rabbit hole? We don't know because he never exposed any of us to it. He kept it from us.”

But Peters’ relatives painted a different picture of him.

They described him as a loving man who doted on his seven-year-old daughter.

They said they had no idea why he might have met such a violent death.

Peters was driving the car in which the trio were killed.