Oscar Pistorius Denies Finger Was On The Trigger In Restaurant Shooting

Pistorius Denies Finger Was On The Trigger In Restaurant Shooting

The prosecutor at the Oscar Pistorius murder trial tore into the Paralympian on Thursday morning, after the runner denied his finger was "on the trigger" when he fired a gun in a crowded restaurant.

The South African has been grilled repeatedly on the incident in the restaurant, which happened around a month prior to Pistorius killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius has denied he intentionally killed the model and reality TV star, and argued that he believed her to be an intruder.

Grilled on the incident at a restaurant in the upmarket Melrose Arch area of Johannesburg, Pistorius repeated that he had been passed the weapon by friend Darren Fresco, and that it had gone off without warning.

"I did not discharge the fire arm," Pistorius insisted. "Mr Fresco was negligent in giving it to me."

"You're blaming everybody but won't take responsibility," Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said to Pistorius, questioning him on what happened to the cartridge after the gun was discharged.

"You're a man with an unbelievable eye for detail and fine detail. Why can you not remember what happened to the cartridge? A firearm went off in your possession, did that not bother you?"

"The whole incident bothered me. Of course it bothered me that the firearm went off in my possession," said Pistorius. "I should have checked first if there was a magazine in the firearm. It was reckless on my behalf."

Painting the portrait of a man unable to take responsibility for his actions, Nel called Pistorius "unbelievably negligent" in his handling of the gun.

Earlier, Pistorius had been pressed on how he had treated Steenkamp during their four month relationship, with Nel insinuating he had been controlling and uncaring.

In a Whatsapp conversation from January, Steenkamp had written: "I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me." She complained of being "picked on" and "and recalled an incident where he "criticised" her so "loudly everyone" could hear it.

"I never picked on her," Pistorius said, but said he had told her to stop speaking in such an "annoying" strong accent, and to stop chewing gum in public because it "didn't look good for the cameras".

"So you were strong enough in that relationship to tell Reeva stop your voices, stop your accents, stop chewing gum," Nel said.

They had also rowed after Steenkamp had objected to a Kendrick Lamar song he had played in the car, Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe.

Quizzed on how unaffectionate his text messages had been, Pistorius said he was not a great one for texting. "I am not the sort of person to say I love you for the first time on a text message. I never got the chance to tell Reeva I loved her.

"I didn't treat her badly. She was a person who stood up for herself. If I treated her badly she wouldn't be with me."

He denied every shouting at Steenkamp, or at ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor who had testified earlier.

"Treat her badly, apologise, smiley face" was the pattern of the relationship, said Nel.

Referring to an incident where Pistorius was angry about being late, because of picking up Steenkamp's friend Gina Myers. the athlete said: "I guess I have got upset with her in the past b, maybe there were times I snapped at her. But I never shouted at her. She was never scared of me."

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