Thank you for reading D.C. Witness.
Help us continue our mission into 2025 by donating to our end of year campaign.
By
D.C. Witness Staff
- June 18, 2017
Homicides
|
Suspects
|
Days after Chad Hawthorne walked into a police station to discuss the death of Antonio Bassett, he was arrested and charged with Bassett’s murder.
Bassett was killed inside an apartment at 3970 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. According to charging documents, Bassett and Hawthorne frequently stayed over in the same apartment where Bassett was killed.
On the night Bassett was killed, the owner of the apartment was awoken by the sounds of gunshots, and found Bassett fatally shot in the place he had been sleeping. According to documents, the owner of the apartment then saw someone who they said looked like Hawthorne running away from the apartment. The owner of the apartment then immediately tried to find someone with a phone to call 911.
The owner of the apartment said Hawthorne was angry the day before Bassett’s killing because someone stole things from Hawthorne’s car, which Hawthorne even reported it to the police. The owner of the apartment also said when Hawthorne decided to not press charges; they thought it meant that Hawthorne planned to “hold court in street.”
Another person staying in the apartment at the time of the shooting said a few weeks prior, they saw Bassett with a key to Hawthorne’s car, and that he intended to use the car to go and buy drugs. This witness also said that he told Hawthorne the day before Bassett was killed that Bassett might have been messing with his car.
On May 22, at around 8 p.m. Hawthorne went to the asked to speak with a detective about the incident that had happened earlier that morning. Hawthorne was informed that he was not under arrest and that he could leave at any time. Hawthorne gave his side of the story but changed up his version of the events later in the same interview with detectives, according to the warrant for his arrest. Hawthorne said that Bassett entered the apartment with an unknown man earlier that night. Hawthorne said that the unknown man and Bassett got into an argument in the middle of the night that woke him up. Hawthorne then said, that he tried to use the bathroom but someone in the apartment was using it so he decided to use the bathroom outside. When he came back in Hawthorne said that he unknown man and Bassett were still arguing then the unknown man pulled out a handgun and shot Bassett multiple times. Hawthorne then said that he immediately left the apartment and saw that one of the people staying in the apartment was calling 911.
Police however determined there were alleged inconsistencies in Hawthorne’s version of events and placed him under arrest.