Olympic track star and double-amputee Oscar Pistorius wept again in a Pretoria, South Africa courtroom today as he told the magistrate during his bail hearing that he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, by accident in his home on Valentine’s Day, according to FOX News.
Pistorius, 26, said he mistook his girlfriend for a robber.
Although the defense is saying the shooting was an accident, the prosecution is calling the act premeditated murder. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at today’s bail hearing:
"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere."
Pistorius claims to have fired his gun through his locked bathroom door, hitting Steenkamp three times, believing that an intruder had broken into his home.
The prosecution contends that Pistorius and Steenkamp got into a heating argument after which Steenkamp took refuge in that locked bathroom. Nel went on to say that Pistorius had to attach his two prosthetic legs in order to be able to reach the locked bathroom.
Pistorius contends that “he felt vulnerable” believing there was an intruder in the bathroom while not wearing his prosthetics, and that’s why he attached his blades and fired his weapon.
Pistorius went on to say that it was only after the shootings did he realize Steenkamp wasn’t in bed.
"It filled me with horror and fear," Pistorius said, according to The Huffington Post.
Not being able to kick the bathroom door in, even wearing his prosthetic limbs, Pistorius said he broke into the bathroom by bashing the door with a cricket bat.
After gaining entry to the bathroom, Pistorius said he found his girlfriend slumped over.
He said he lifted her bloodied body into his arms and tried to carry her downstairs to seek medical help.
But by then, it was too late.
"She died in my arms," the athlete said.
Reeva Steenkamp, 29, was a model, law graduate, and aspiring actress who appeared posthumously two days after her death on a South African TV reality show "Tropika Island of Treasure."
Also see:
- Police concentrating on bloody cricket bat found in Oscar Pistorius’ home
- Slain model Reeva Steenkamp to appear in pre-recorded reality TV show (Photos)
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