Bing Joseph loses confidence in SVG following DJ Swagga’s murder

While reminiscing on the life of Gasroy ‘DJ Swagga’ Fergusson and grieving his death on Boom FM, radio personality, Dwight ” Bing” Joseph said he has lost confidence in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), and hopes his children do not return to live here.

Joseph, Chief Operating Officer at Boom 106.9FM, where DJ Swagga also worked, made these comments on the station the morning after Fergusson was shot to death in Paul’s Avenue some time after 12:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, August 16, 2025.

His death is now recorded as this country’s 25th homicide this year. Joseph said when he was first informed of Fergusson’s death over the phone, he was in disbelief and shock.

“I said…what message you just sent me dey? You mean our Swagga…our Swagga got shot and died? I said, where did this happen. He said ‘in the area where the station is in Paul’s Avenue’,” Joseph recounted.

Believing that Fergusson was hospitalised, but not dead, Joseph said he asked the caller about Fergusson’s location.

“He said ‘he’s on the ground’. I said, What do you mean?…His body’s on the ground? He said, ‘yes’. I said, like on the ground like now, now, now? His body is on the ground now?”

When Joseph further questioned the caller if he was sure that Fergusson was, the caller responded in the affirmative. Even after arriving in Paul’s Avenue, Joseph said he did not want to believe his eyes when he saw police officers processing the scene.

“I have no hope. I have no hope. I have no hope. I have no hope. Standing here, I have no hope. Maybe it’s because I’ve been here crying out so long, I have lost all confidence in my country to the point where I want to give up,” he said.

“…we were saying as parents, on the weekend, we are so happy that three of our children are away, and we hope that none of them, none of them would want to come back to St Vincent to live.”

Ferguson’s former co-worker and close friend, Galaxii Valiantsz II, paid tribute to him on the radio programme and said that despite being an office attendant at Hot 97, Fergusson would frequently be in the studio and showed interest in being part of the musical environment.

“I believe that he wanted to be a DJ. I believe that he wanted to be on radio and the look that he gave me, I was sure that he was gonna become either a DJ or whatever it was, because he was so attentive.”

Valiantsz said that he knows when people have “that hunger, that talent for what we do” and Fergusson had that in him as he was always attentive as he watched his seniors do their work.

“And look at him now. You know from where he came from, and it’s just sad, that you know, his greatness was cut short.” Reports are that Fergusson and others were ‘hanging out’ at a shop in Paul’s Avenue when a black car drove up and gunmen emerged from the vehicle and began shooting at them. Fergusson is said to have initially been shot in the leg and fell, and one of the assailants, after unsuccessfully pursuing another man who had been shot in his hand and back, returned to where Fergusson had fallen and shot him multiple times in his head.