In dramatic scenes, the athlete forced the court to adjourn for the day after breaking down while describing how he flung the door open to find his girlfriend unconscious on the other side.
He claims he thought there was a dangerous intruder inside the house and shot in self-defence to protect them both.
The Paralympian told how he grabbed his gun from under the bed after hearing a noise in the early hours of Valentine’s Day and told Miss Steenkamp to take cover thinking she was in the bed.
He said he then went to investigate the noise, shouting at the suspected burglar with his firearm trained in front of him.
“I got to the entrance of the bathroom at the end of the passage where I stopped screaming, he told the court. At this point I was certain that the intruders were in the bathroom.”
“I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I was with my back against the wall. I wasn’t sure if the intruders were in the toilet or around the corner at that point.
‘Then I heard a noise from inside the toilet that I perceived to be someone coming out of the toilet. Before I knew it I had fired four shots at the door”
“I had my pistol in my right hand and peered into the bathroom. I didn’t have much mobility on the tiles. I had my pistol raised to the corner of the entrance of the bathroom.
“My ears were still ringing. I couldn’t hear anything, so I kept shouting for Reeva to phone the police. I was still scared to retreat because I wasn’t sure if there was somebody on the ladder or someone in the toilet.
He said he then went back to the bedroom and realised Miss Steenkamp wasn’t there.
“I didn’t want to believe it could be Reeva inside the toilet. I didn’t know what to do. I kicked the door. I was crying out, I was screaming. I have never screamed like that.”
“It dawned on me that it could be Reeva in the toilet. I jumped off the bed and tried to see if she was hiding behind the curtain. I didn’t want to believe that it could be Reeva in the toilet.’
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.
After hitting the door, he saw the key inside, unlocked the door and ‘flung it open’.
There, he found her fatally injured.
“I said “Oh, Reeva”. I sat over her and cried,’ the athlete testified sobbing loudly and putting his head in his hands and before letting out the barely inaudible cry: ‘She wasn’t breathing.”
After a brief adjournment, his lawyer Barry Roux came back to say his client was in no state to continue.
The case was adjourned until Wednesday.
Earlier, the Paralympian retched on the witness stand as he described the moments leading up to the shooting.
Pistorius recalled how he heard a window sliding open in his bathroom in the middle of the night, convincing him an intruder was breaking in and that he needed to arm himself.
-By Daily Mail
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