PRETORIA: A weeping Oscar Pistorius shielded his ears as a witness in his murder trial on Thursday gave harrowing evidence about desperate attempts to save Reeva Steenkamp’s life after she was shot.
One of the first people on the scene after Oscar Pistorius shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp told a court on Thursday he feared the South African Olympic and Paralympic star, who is on trial for murder, might kill himself with the same gun.
Testifying on the fourth day of Pistorius’ trial, neighbor Johan Stipp said he entered the athlete’s home last year a few minutes after hearing screams and shots to find the distraught sprinter kneeling over the lifeless body of a woman.
“‘I shot her. I thought she was a burglar and I shot her,'” Stipp quoted the 27-year-old Pistorius as saying.
Stipp, a doctor, went on to describe his futile attempts to revive Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate who been dating Pistorius for a few months.
She died after being hit by three rounds, including one to the head, out of four fired by Pistorius through the locked door of an upstairs toilet. He denies murder, arguing that it was a tragic mistake and that he mistook her for an intruder.
As Stipp checked Steenkamp for signs of life, Pistorius was begging him to save her life, Stipp told the court.
“Oscar was crying all the time. He prayed to God: ‘Please let her live, she must not die,'” he said.
Pistorius stands accused of murdering Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate.
He claims to have shot her through a locked toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder.
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