Pistol-rius lists incidents that triggered shooting
“The first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself,” Pistorius
Pretoria: A sobbing Oscar Pistorius described the moment he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp claiming he fired four shots “before I knew it”, he told his murder trial on Tuesday.
The sprinter wept so uncontrollably as he recounted the events of the fateful night that it forced the adjournment of his trial until Wednesday.
Trembling and overwrought, the champion athlete described rushing and stumbling toward his bathroom with a gun in the dead of night on Valentine’s Day 2013 after hearing a suspected intruder.
“I was overcome with fear,” he said, his voice cracking with anguish. “Before I knew it, I’d fired four shots at the door”.
Pistorius faces a life sentence if found guilty of deliberately murdering Steenkamp, a charge he denies.
“My ears were ringing, I didn’t hear anything. I kept on shouting for Reeva.” When she did not respond Pistorius said he realised he may have made a terrible mistake and rushed back to the bathroom to break down the door.
There, in a pool of blood, he found her fatally wounded, with gunshots to the hip, arm, hand and head.
Earlier, Pistorius had explained how the couple had gone to bed around 10 pm after a quiet evening, but woke up to bring in two fans he had left outside to cool his bedroom.
At that point he knew Steenkamp was awake and they exchanged a few words. “That’s the moment that everything changed,” he said, after he heard the sound coming from the bathroom.
“The first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself,” he said under defence lawyer Barry Roux’s gentle coaxing.
“I wasn’t sure where to point the firearm. I had it pointed at the toilet but my eyes were going to the window and the toilet,” he said.
“I wasn’t sure if someone was going to come out of the toilet attacking me,” he said, his voice quavering.