Cabbie killed in Seaview Gardens
Published:Thursday | January 5, 2023 | 1:37 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A cabbie’s dream to acquire his own vehicle in 2023 will not materialise after his life was cut short just four days into the new year in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew.
No motive has been established for the homicide, but relatives of 31-year-old Javon Ferguson, also know as ‘Trigger’, believe a woman may be the root cause.
Investigators are also looking into that possibility after Ferguson was shot by a man, who was posing as a passenger, about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Investigators are also exploring another theory that his death could have been a contract killing.
An officer close to the investigation told The Gleaner that Ferguson had been reporting to the police on condition of bail for an offence.
Reports are that two passengers were on board the grey Toyota Fielder motor car when Ferguson was asked to stop along a stretch of road in Phase Two of the community.
No sooner did the male passenger exit the vehicle when an explosion was heard. Ferguson then slumped over the steering wheel.
He was reportedly shot in the head.
The female passenger subsequently ran from the vehicle and raised an alarm.
As morgue attendants removed the body from the vehicle, relatives who had gathered nearby began to wail.
Ferguson’s siblings said he made a living driving vehicles for other people and aspired to buy his own car this year.
“Him say him a plan fi change him ways. Him always a plan say him a go buy a car. He was saving to buy the car,” his sister told The Gleaner.
She said that she last spoke to him on Tuesday night.
“Mi a cuss him and tell him say all him do a put himself in a problem and mek mi affi a bail him, and him say, ‘Mi sister, mi a go change’,” she told The Gleaner, adding it was always “woman problem”.
A brother told The Gleaner that he believed that his younger sibling was targeted.
“Mostly Half-Way Tree him work because him a Coaster driver, too. This look like a some woman thing cause that … . A him dem definitely come for. Where him dead, you can see seh a turn off dem beg him,” the brother said.
Ferguson was described as short-tempered by his siblings and others who knew him.
As the news began to spread, other taxi operators converged at the scene, bemoaning the killing of their colleague.
“When you do good in this country, you dead quick. When you do bad, you live longer because look how the man a earn his honest bread and dem kill him,” one taxi operator said.
The St Andrew South Police Division finished last year with 131 murders, a decline from the 164 in 2021.