I remember when I heard the news broken on radio, I was begrudgingly sitting in traffic on my way to Midrand, I literally gasped in disbelief and as the traffic was going nowhere I quickly bbm'ed to let people know the news. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, Valentine’s Day will forever be associated with…’remember when Oscar shot his girlfriend…’
I’ve been in rigorous training sessions, regarding a new venture, over the last two weeks but found myself unable to concentrate and regularly checking and refreshing twitter feeds for the latest news (B.t.w there is no better news source than twitter to keep abreast of proceedings).
I don’t think a story has ever affected SA the way this one has, the Pistorius shooting is our equivalent of America’s OJ Simpson trial.
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| Pistorius at the 2012 Olympics |
It was only a few months ago when the country shouted his name in unison as he participated in the Olympics, now someone who once united the nation has split it in two; those who believe him and those who don’t-and of course there’s a third lot the rational ones who will wait for all the evidence to be presented and a proper trial to decide his fate.
I have to admit, before the shooting I didn’t even know who Reeva Steenkamp was but now I’m so terribly saddened and touched by her tragic death that it feels like she was a friend.
In my head I play out the different scenarios of what could possibly have happened on that fateful night and wish that somehow someone could’ve warned her.
We obviously don’t know what the outcome of the trial will be anyone who has been following the developments has no doubt played judge, juror and lawyer around their dinner tables. But the truth is we may never really know what happened and this leads to a whole lot of speculation.
Hopefully we have a justice system that would see an innocent man walk and a guilty man jailed but as we have seen over and over again a trial is as much about the facts as it is about the strength of your legal team, and so far Pistorius’ attorney Roux has outwitted the state.
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| Oscar Pistorius in court |
Oscar’s affidavit:
I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated murder, as I had no intention to kill my girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp ("Reeva"). ... I deny the aforesaid allegation in the strongest terms. ...
"On the 13th of February 2013 Reeva would have gone out with her friends and I with my friends. Reeva then called me and asked that we rather spend the evening at home. I agreed. ... By about 22h00 on 13 February 2013 we were in our bedroom. She was doing her yoga exercises and I was in bed watching television. My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the same way. She had given me a present for Valentine's Day but asked me only to open it the next day.
"After Reeva finished her yoga exercises she got into bed and we both fell asleep. I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes ... I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before. For that reason I kept my firearm, a 9 mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.
"During the early morning hours of 14 February 2013, I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. I heard a noise in the bathroom and realized that someone was in the bathroom. ... I felt a sense of terror rushing over me. ...
"I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on.
"I grabbed my 9 mm pistol from underneath my bed. On my way to the bathroom I screamed words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police. It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed. I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I realized that the intruder/s was/were in the toilet because the toilet door was closed and I did not see anyone in the bathroom. ...
"It filled me with horror and fear of an intruder or intruders being inside the toilet. ... As I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself. I believed that when the intruder/s came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger. ...
"I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police. She did not respond ... Everything was pitch dark in the bedroom and I was still too scared to switch on a light. Reeva was not responding.
"When I reached the bed, I realized that Reeva was not in bed. That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet. I returned to the bathroom calling her name. I tried to open the toilet door but it was locked. I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.
"I put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open. I think I must then have turned on the lights. I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. ... Reeva was slumped over but alive.
"I battled to get her out of the toilet and pulled her into the bathroom. I phoned Johan Stander ("Stander") who was involved in the administration of the estate and asked him to phone the ambulance. ... I carried her downstairs in order to take her to the hospital. ... I tried to render the assistance to Reeva that I could, but she died in my arms. ...
To a layperson, like me, Oscar’s affidavit leaves a lot of questions unanswered; Why didn’t he notice she wasn’t in bed when he went back? Didn’t he think it strange she didn’t answer when he asked her to call the police? (And on that point he was ‘too afraid to put on a light’ but not too afraid to ask her to call the police?) Why was the toilet door locked? Surely no-one would just sit quietly and be shot at, so assuming she had screamed after the first shot why didn’t he stop shooting? Also his actions indicate he believes one should shoot first and ask questions later and all is not well if one has that type of psyche.
If he is 'innocent' and things played out exactly as he said it did then it’s heart-breaking that he has to mourn the loss of his girlfriend while being accused of her premeditated murder.
