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'Blade Runner' shot girlfriend through door
Source: Agencies |
February 20, 2013, Wednesday
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OSCAR Pistorius fired four times into the door of a small bathroom where his girlfriend was cowering after a shouting match on Valentine's Day, hitting her three times, a South African prosecutor said yesterday as he charged the "Blade Runner" with premeditated murder.
The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law.
Pistorius sobbed softly as his lawyer insisted that Reeva Steenkamp's shooting was an accident.
"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at a bail hearing. "It must have been horrific."
Pistorius told the packed courtroom that he shot his girlfriend to death by mistake, thinking she was a robber.
The double amputee said in an affidavit read by his lawyer at his bail hearing that he felt vulnerable because he did not have on his prosthetic legs when he pumped bullets into the locked bathroom door. Then, Pistorius said in the sworn statement, he realized that model Reeva Steenkamp was not in his bed.
"It filled me with horror and fear ," he said.
He put on his prosthetic legs, tried to kick down the door, then bashed it in with a cricket bat to find Steenkamp, 29, shot inside. He said he ran downstairs with her, but "She died in my arms."
Prosecutor Nel said the 26-year-old athlete and Olympian took the time to put on his legs and walk some seven meters from the bed to the bathroom door before opening fire.
A conviction of premeditated murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in jail.
The Valentine's Day shooting death has shocked South Africans and many around the world who idolized Pistorius for overcoming adversity to become a sports champion, competing in the London Olympics last year in track besides being a Paralympian.
Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux insisted the shooting was an accident and that there was no evidence to substantiate a murder charge.
"Was it to kill her, or was it to get her out?" he asked about the broken-down door. "We submit it is not even murder. There is no concession this is a murder."
He said the state had provided no evidence that the couple quarreled nor offered a motive.
Nel rebutted: "The motive is 'I want to kill.'"
Nel said the couple had had a shouting match and Steenkamp fled to the bathroom, down a seven-meter passage from the bedroom, and locked herself in. He said the 26-year-old Pistorius got up from bed and had to put on his prosthetic legs to reach the toilet door.
Nel told the court the door was broken open after the shots were fired. He said the killing was premeditated because Pistorius had planned to say that he thought he was shooting an intruder, and had told that story to his sister Aimee.
"It was all part of the preplanning. Why would a burglar lock himself inside the bathroom?" Nel asked.
Outside the court, several dozen singing women protested against domestic violence and waved placards urging Pistorius be refused bail.
South Africa has some of the world's worst rates of violence against females and the highest rate in the world of women killed by an intimate partner, says the Medical Research Council.
The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law.
Pistorius sobbed softly as his lawyer insisted that Reeva Steenkamp's shooting was an accident.
"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at a bail hearing. "It must have been horrific."
Pistorius told the packed courtroom that he shot his girlfriend to death by mistake, thinking she was a robber.
The double amputee said in an affidavit read by his lawyer at his bail hearing that he felt vulnerable because he did not have on his prosthetic legs when he pumped bullets into the locked bathroom door. Then, Pistorius said in the sworn statement, he realized that model Reeva Steenkamp was not in his bed.
"It filled me with horror and fear ," he said.
He put on his prosthetic legs, tried to kick down the door, then bashed it in with a cricket bat to find Steenkamp, 29, shot inside. He said he ran downstairs with her, but "She died in my arms."
Prosecutor Nel said the 26-year-old athlete and Olympian took the time to put on his legs and walk some seven meters from the bed to the bathroom door before opening fire.
A conviction of premeditated murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in jail.
The Valentine's Day shooting death has shocked South Africans and many around the world who idolized Pistorius for overcoming adversity to become a sports champion, competing in the London Olympics last year in track besides being a Paralympian.
Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux insisted the shooting was an accident and that there was no evidence to substantiate a murder charge.
"Was it to kill her, or was it to get her out?" he asked about the broken-down door. "We submit it is not even murder. There is no concession this is a murder."
He said the state had provided no evidence that the couple quarreled nor offered a motive.
Nel rebutted: "The motive is 'I want to kill.'"
Nel said the couple had had a shouting match and Steenkamp fled to the bathroom, down a seven-meter passage from the bedroom, and locked herself in. He said the 26-year-old Pistorius got up from bed and had to put on his prosthetic legs to reach the toilet door.
Nel told the court the door was broken open after the shots were fired. He said the killing was premeditated because Pistorius had planned to say that he thought he was shooting an intruder, and had told that story to his sister Aimee.
"It was all part of the preplanning. Why would a burglar lock himself inside the bathroom?" Nel asked.
Outside the court, several dozen singing women protested against domestic violence and waved placards urging Pistorius be refused bail.
South Africa has some of the world's worst rates of violence against females and the highest rate in the world of women killed by an intimate partner, says the Medical Research Council.
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