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 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.
At one point, when Pistorius left Steenkamp, Stipp and housing
complex manager Johan Stander to go upstairs, Stipp thought he might
be about to kill himself.
"I noticed that Oscar was going upstairs and I asked Mr. Stander if
he knew where the gun was because it was obvious that Oscar was
emotionally very, very upset," he said.
"I didn't know the situation in the house so I thought maybe he was
going to hurt himself."
Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as baby but went on to
achieve international fame as the "fastest man on no legs", running
on carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs.
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Already one of the best-known Paralympic athletes, he ascended to
the pantheon of track greats at the 2012 London Olympics when he
reached the 400 meters semi-final competing against able-bodied
athletes.
With rugged good looks and an easy smile, he was a sponsors' dream,
but since he shot Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year a different
side to his carefully groomed media persona has emerged.
On Wednesday, the court heard how Pistorius had accidentally fired a
pistol under the table in a packed restaurant — right next to a
child — and then asked a friend to take the blame.
The prosecution has used the incident to try to portray an image of
Pistorius as a gun-obsessed hot-head. If found guilty of intentional
murder, Pistorius is likely to spend at least 25 years behind bars.
Other witnesses have testified to hearing a woman's terrified
screams before and during the volley of shots.
(Reporting and writing by Ed Cropley; editing by Pascal Fletcher)
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