Olympic runner says he shot girlfriend through door
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Oscar Pistorius told a packed courtroom Tuesday that he shot his girlfriend to death by mistake, thinking she was a robber. The prosecutor called it premeditated murder.
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 Gerrie Nel on Tuesday charged the 26-year-old athlete and Olympian with premeditated murder, alleging he took the time to put on his legs and walk some seven meters (yards) 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. Steenkamp was a model and law graduate who made her debut on a South African reality TV program that was broadcast on Saturday, two days after her death.
The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law.
Nel told the court that Pistorius fired into the door of a small bathroom where Steenkamp was cowering after a shouting match. He fired four times and three bullets hit Steenkamp, the prosecutor said.
"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere," prosecutor Nel argued. "It must have been horrific."
Pistorius sobbed softly as his 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.'"
There were affadavits from friends of Pistorius and Steenkamp read out by defense lawyer Roux in the bail hearing.
The statements described a charming, happy couple. The night before the killing, they said, Pistorius and Steenkamp had canceled separate plans to spend the night before Valentine's Day together at his home.
As details emerged at the dramatic court hearing in the capital, Steenkamp's body was being cremated Tuesday at a memorial service in the south-coast port city of Port Elizabeth. The family said members had arrived from around the world. Six pallbearers carried her coffin, draped with a white cloth and covered in white flowers, into the church for the private service.
June Steenkamp, the mother, said the family wants answers.
"Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?" she said in an interview published Monday in The Times newspaper.
Outside the court, several dozen singing women protested against domestic violence and waved placards urging Pistorius be refused bail. "Pistorius must rot in jail," one placard said.
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, according to a study by the Medical Research Council. Another council study estimates a child or woman is raped every four minutes. While homicide rates have dropped, the number of women killed by current or former partners has increased, said the council's Professor Rachel Jewkes. At least three women are killed by a partner every day in the country of 50 million, she said.
Steenkamp campaigned actively against domestic violence and had tweeted on Twitter that she planned to join a "Black Friday" protest by wearing black in honor of a 17-year-old girl who was gang-raped and mutilated two weeks ago.
What "she stood for, and the abuse against women, unfortunately it's gone right around and I think the Lord knows that statement is more powerful now," her uncle and the family spokesman Mike Steenkamp said after her memorial.
He said the family had planned a big get-together at Christmas but that had not been possible. "But we are here today as a family and the only one who's missing is Reeva," he said, breaking down and weeping.
Pistorius was born without fibula bones and had his legs amputated when he was 11 months old.
The man known as the Blade Runner because of his running prostheses has lost several valuable sponsorships estimated to be worth more than $1 million a year.
On Tuesday, the athlete was ousted from a pro-gay campaign being launched in Cape Town, organizers said. In a video axed from the campaign, Pistorius says "You don't have to worry. You don't have to change. Take a deep breath and remember, 'It will get better.'"=
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 Gerrie Nel on Tuesday charged the 26-year-old athlete and Olympian with premeditated murder, alleging he took the time to put on his legs and walk some seven meters (yards) 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. Steenkamp was a model and law graduate who made her debut on a South African reality TV program that was broadcast on Saturday, two days after her death.
The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law.
Nel told the court that Pistorius fired into the door of a small bathroom where Steenkamp was cowering after a shouting match. He fired four times and three bullets hit Steenkamp, the prosecutor said.
"She couldn't go anywhere. You can run nowhere," prosecutor Nel argued. "It must have been horrific."
Pistorius sobbed softly as his 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.'"
There were affadavits from friends of Pistorius and Steenkamp read out by defense lawyer Roux in the bail hearing.
The statements described a charming, happy couple. The night before the killing, they said, Pistorius and Steenkamp had canceled separate plans to spend the night before Valentine's Day together at his home.
As details emerged at the dramatic court hearing in the capital, Steenkamp's body was being cremated Tuesday at a memorial service in the south-coast port city of Port Elizabeth. The family said members had arrived from around the world. Six pallbearers carried her coffin, draped with a white cloth and covered in white flowers, into the church for the private service.
June Steenkamp, the mother, said the family wants answers.
"Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?" she said in an interview published Monday in The Times newspaper.
Outside the court, several dozen singing women protested against domestic violence and waved placards urging Pistorius be refused bail. "Pistorius must rot in jail," one placard said.
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, according to a study by the Medical Research Council. Another council study estimates a child or woman is raped every four minutes. While homicide rates have dropped, the number of women killed by current or former partners has increased, said the council's Professor Rachel Jewkes. At least three women are killed by a partner every day in the country of 50 million, she said.
Steenkamp campaigned actively against domestic violence and had tweeted on Twitter that she planned to join a "Black Friday" protest by wearing black in honor of a 17-year-old girl who was gang-raped and mutilated two weeks ago.
What "she stood for, and the abuse against women, unfortunately it's gone right around and I think the Lord knows that statement is more powerful now," her uncle and the family spokesman Mike Steenkamp said after her memorial.
He said the family had planned a big get-together at Christmas but that had not been possible. "But we are here today as a family and the only one who's missing is Reeva," he said, breaking down and weeping.
Pistorius was born without fibula bones and had his legs amputated when he was 11 months old.
The man known as the Blade Runner because of his running prostheses has lost several valuable sponsorships estimated to be worth more than $1 million a year.
On Tuesday, the athlete was ousted from a pro-gay campaign being launched in Cape Town, organizers said. In a video axed from the campaign, Pistorius says "You don't have to worry. You don't have to change. Take a deep breath and remember, 'It will get better.'"=
I worked with a South African. Apparently gated communities and walled compounds around single-family homes are just extremely common - and EVERYBODY who can owns and carries a gun. The assumption seems to be that any perceived threat is to be met with gunfire. Just a really great model for Americans to emulate, thanks to Wayne LaPierre and his fan club.
BS. The golden rule is ALWAYS know what your target is and that it is clearly identified. Another senseless death based on horse crap judgement of some nimrod. And I wonder how long Komo intends to wait to report on the people killed in a shooting spree in Orange County today by a part time college student.Â
@Citizen#3457899654Â In a previous article he said he'd nearly shot the washing machine multiple times because it had startled him and he at first hadn't realized what was the sound.Â
So it took him five days to explain that the reason he fired repeatedly was because he thought there was an intruder? Â Wouldn't most people remember to relay that particular detail to the police as soon as the police arrived on the scene?
@NorthEnd I'm thinking I'd be hysterically screaming it repeatedly to the poor officers unlucky enough to have to deal with me at such a horrific scene.
The defense is preposterous. Nobody with any common sense or gun training shoots unless he can identify the target. Shooting four times thru a bathroom door is murder. Moreover, her head was bashed in and the bat had her blood on it. She was in her nightie and her overnight bag was in his bedroom. Take him out back and shoot him.
@Donacita Oh - well - maybe he bashed her head with the bat after he shot her as an act of mercy to end her suffering... and maybe horses can fly...
Is it just me or does he look like he is more 36 than 26.Â
the police were already there because of a domestic disturbance. Â He shot her in the hip first, then shot her after she locked herself in the bathroom. Â The bat was covered with blood.. so it was used against her, or by her in self defense.Â
@DT Just like Yeardley Love: "It was an accident!"
Most people would have checked to see if their partner was still in bed. Actually, most people would automatically assume it was their partner rather than immediately jump to a "prowler locked in the bathroom" scenario. Either the story is complete BS or this guy isn't working with a full deck.
@queenofthenight Also, to be able to run with those prosthetics on his stumps, they would be more than sufficiently toughened up enough he could move around on them; he wasn't completely immobilized to the point of feeling that vulnerable.Â
I always knew this guy was a d-bag but I thought he would fess up by now. Silly me for thinking he would suddenly change. I hope they do the right thing and put him away.
@Hambingo He would have to actually be a man to man up and take responsibility. And no real man or real woman would cowardly shoot their defenseless partner repeatedly through a locked bathroom door then bash their skull in with a bat while they lay bleeding.Â
What a crock of bull****... and he will most likely get away with it. Killing women is a national male sport.
@ytboarder Apparently international. Sports stars make terrible role models even if they don't kill someone or beat them to a pulp.Â
He is so full of it. Anyone else in that scenario would have at least asked/yelled at the person behind the door asking them who they were.  This is definitely premeditated.Â
Premeditated murder. His life is over.
Liar lair pants on fire!
Sounds like he needs to be accidently be sent to prison for life..
This is not Call to Duty Modern Warfare.  You don't shoot through doors.  You always ID your target.  It could be a lost child or a fireman.  He did not plan to stop his target. He plan to KILL his target.  He is using this handicap as justification.  SHAME ON YOU. Â
Hmmmm... According to this scene representation (http://www.tmz.com/2013/02/19/oscar-pistorius-unintentional-death-murder-blade-runner-reeva-steenkamp-south-africa/?adid=hero2) it would have been impossible for him to shoot through the bathroom door if he was laying in bed, given the layout of his home.
I don't buy it. You wouldn't blindly shoot through a door at a suspected intruder. What were they going to steal from your bathroom and his house doesn't have an alarm system? I'd make verbal contact, at the very least and warn the intruder that I was armed and willing to shoot unless they remained in there until the police arrived. I think, if you placed a sample of several hundred people in this situation, none of them would proceed how Pistorius did. Lastly, but a weaker piece of evidence, why would Steenkamp lock the bathroom door if she was simply making a bathroom trip in the middle of the night.Â
I agree with you 100%.Â
@windtreeman I'm with you, his story just doesn't add up. First off how many burglers do you know who break into your home and head for the bathroom? I dunno, is that where most people hide their valuables? Secondly he wants us to believe that he awoke, rose out of bed, grabbed his gun and fired 4 shots into the door without realizing that his girlfriend was no longer in the bed next to him until AFTERWARDS.. BS!
There were previous run ins with the local police over domestic violence issues with this couple and neighbors have testified to hearing a loud arguement earlier in the evening.