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 Testifying in the Pretoria High Court, she described how the
27-year-old South African Olympic athlete shouted at a policeman
after the car they were driving in was pulled over for speeding
south of Johannesburg in September 2012.
After seeing Pistorius' pistol lying on the car seat, the officer
picked it up and emptied its magazine onto the floor of the car,
prompting an outburst from Pistorius, Taylor said.
When they were allowed to go on their way, Pistorius and the driver,
a friend called Darren Fresco, started to joke about shooting out a
traffic light, known in South Africa as a robot, Taylor said.
"Oscar was very angry," said Taylor, who was sitting in the back
seat at the time of the incident. "Thereafter they were joking
around and saying they wanted to shoot a robot."
"Two minutes after, I saw Oscar take his gun and shoot out of the
car roof. A very loud sound. They both laughed," she said.
The testimony from Taylor comes two days after the court heard how
Pistorius accidentally fired a pistol under the table in a packed
Johannesburg restaurant — right next to a child — and then asked his
friend Fresco to take the blame.
As well as being charged with the murder of Steenkamp, his
girlfriend, on Valentine's Day 2013, Pistorius is facing three
firearms offences, part of prosecution attempts to portray him as a
gun-obsessed hot-head.
Pistorius denies murder, saying he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder
when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his luxury
Pretoria home. If found guilty, he is likely to spend at least 25
years behind bars.
PISTORIUS WOKE GIRLFRIEND
Taylor, who broke up with Pistorius when he started dating model and
law graduate Steenkamp in late 2012, also described two other
incidents in which Pistorius drew his gun.
The first was when he jumped out of his car at the gateway of his
Pretoria housing complex and put his gun to the window of a black
BMW that appeared to have been following him.
The other was when he woke up in the middle of the night after
hearing a bang in the bathroom adjoining his bedroom.
"Something hit the bathroom window and Oscar woke me up and asked me
if I had heard it," Taylor said, noting that the noise had probably
been generated by a passing storm. "He got up with his gun and
walked out of the room."
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Taylor, who broke into sobs twice during her testimony, also said
there had been "one or two" other occasions when Pistorius woke her
after hearing noises during the night.
Pistorius presented an affidavit at his bail hearing in which he
said he did not check whether Steenkamp was still in the bed before
going into the bathroom to confront the supposed intruder on the
night he shot her.
Several witnesses have testified to hearing female shouts and
screams coming from the house before the shots.
Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as a baby but went on to
achieve international fame as the "fastest man on no legs", running
on carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs.
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 good looks and an easy smile, he was a sponsors' dream, but
since Steenkamp's killing the accounts of his behavior have
contrasted with his carefully groomed media persona.
(Additional reporting by Kenichi Serino;
writing by Ed Cropley;
editing by Pascal Fletcher and Louise Ireland)
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