|
 Testifying on the fifth day of the trial at the Pretoria High
Court, Pieter Baba, who was on guard duty the night Pistorius killed
29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, said he received a call from the
athlete at 3:21 a.m., around five minutes after Steenkamp was shot.
Pistorius was too upset to say anything on the call, Baba said,
speaking in Afrikaans through an interpreter.
However, when Baba — concerned that something was wrong — called him
back a few minutes later, Pistorius told him: "Security, everything
is fine." Baba delivered the quote in English.
The dramatic testimony from one of the first people on the scene
capped a week of hearings in which several witnesses described
hearing a woman's shouts and screams before a volley of shots in the
early hours of Valentine's Day last year.
Steenkamp died after being hit by three of four rounds fired by
Pistorius from a 9 mm pistol through the door of a toilet cubicle in
an upstairs bathroom in his luxury home in a Pretoria gated
community. The shooting stunned South Africa and millions of
Pistorius supporters around the world.
The 27-year-old — one of the most recognized men in world athletics — denies murder, saying it was a tragic accident and that he mistook
her for an intruder. If found guilty, he is likely to spend at least
25 years behind bars.
"SHOOT A ROBOT"
As well as the murder charge, Pistorius is being tried for three
firearms offences, part of prosecution attempts to portray him as a
gun-obsessed hot-head.
Earlier on Friday, ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor told the court how
a seething Pistorius had fired his pistol out of a car's open
sun-roof after a heated argument with a police officer in September
2012.
Taylor said she, Pistorius and a friend, Darren Fresco, had been
pulled over by a policeman for speeding. When he saw 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, she said.
When they were allowed to go on their way, Pistorius and 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.
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Taylor's testimony 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.
PISTORIUS WOKE GIRLFRIEND
Taylor, who broke up with Pistorius when he started dating 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.
"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."
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.
The testimony contrasts with a Pistorius bail hearing affidavit 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.
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.
Dubbed the "Blade Runner" for his stunning Paralympic performances,
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 revealed
a dark side to his carefully groomed media persona.
The trial resumes at 0730 GMT on Monday.
(Additional reporting by Kenichi Serino;
writing by Ed Cropley;
editing by Catherine Evans)
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