An uncooperative suspect cried ‘I just wanted a cigarette’ as he was forced to the ground and arrested for shooting his girlfriend.
Tense police bodycam footage captured the stand-off between multiple police officers and Richard Basson, who was pacing outside his home while demanding a lighter before he would cooperate.
Basson, 45, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after attacking his partner Carrie Slater, 37.
He claimed she had been ‘stabbed in the face with a pool cue’ when in fact he had shot her in the head.
Basson called police to his home in Long Clawson, Leicestershire on the evening of last September 21, after he shot Carrie in the head during a row over ‘half a cigarette’.
He demanded a lighter for his cigarette, but refused to sit down after being asked several times by officers – leading to his arrest.
Basson writhed and screeched while being placed under arrest, crying ‘all I wanted was a cigarette’ and claiming he had been cooperative as an officer pinned him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs.
A self-loading pistol and four rounds of ammunition – two live and two spent – were foundin the back garden following the arrest.
During the 999 call Basson claimed he had stabbed his partner in the face with a ‘brass ended pool cue’ adding: ‘I didn’t mean to stab her.
‘I meant like just warn her and like jab at her and she walked straight into it with her head down.’
After being pressed to confirm whether he’d stabbed her, Basson said: ‘I’ve hit her, I’ve hit her directly in the centre of the forehead and then it’s drifted off to her right, my left.’
Paramedics found Carrie in a bedroom with a ‘significant injury to the front of her head’.
She was rushed to hospital, undergoing scans which discovered that her injury was in fact a gunshot wound. Carrie was placed on life support but she was pronounced dead two days later after it was withdrawn.
Basson, who was already in custody, was further arrested on suspicion of murder and then charged the next day.
Detective Inspector Emma Matts said: ‘My thoughts and condolences go out to Carrie’s family and loved ones, who I know are still struggling to come to terms with their loss and understand why Carrie was killed.
‘Hopefully today’s outcome provides a degree of closure to those who were closest to her.
‘Only Basson knows why he killed a woman he claimed to love. He’s never explained his actions. He’s never shown any remorse for killing another person.’
Basson was convicted of one count of murder at Leicester crown court and is due to be sentenced at the same court today.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
