Witness heard 'non-stop shouting' from Pistorius home before fatal shooting
REUTERS
Oscar Pistorius stands in the dock during a break in court proceedings at the Pretoria Magistrates court in South Africa today.
PRETORIA, South Africa — A witness heard "non-stop shouting" coming from the home of Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius shortly before his girlfriend was shot dead, the lead detective in the murder investigation said on Wednesday.
Warrant officer Hilton Botha, a detective with 24 years on the force, also told the Pretoria magistrates court that Pistorius' girlfriend, model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp, was hit by three bullets, in the head, elbow and hip.
Pistorius, a double amputee known as the "Blade Runner," broke down in tears as Botha presented his testimony.
The shooting has stunned South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the track glory of the athlete, who had no lower legs, as an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity.
"One of our witnesses heard a fight, two people talking loudly at each other ... from two in the morning to three," Botha told the court.
Steenkamp was in a locked toilet room adjoining Pistorius' bathroom when she was shot in the early hours last Thursday. Botha said the angle at which the shots were fired through the door suggested the shooter had aimed specifically to hit somebody on the toilet.
Pistorius had said he moved into the bathroom on his stumps - the reason he felt so vulnerable - but Botha said the shots went in a "top to bottom" trajectory, suggesting Pistorius was wearing his artificial legs when he pulled the trigger.
"It seems to me it was fired down," he said.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel projected a plan of the bedroom and bathroom for the courtroom and argued Pistorius had to walk past his bed to get to the bathroom and could not have done so without realizing the Steenkamp was not in the bed.
"There's no other way of getting there," Nel said.
Botha said the holster for the 9 mm pistol was found under the side of the bed on which Steenkamp slept — also implying it would have been impossible for Pistorius to get the gun without realizing that Steenkamp was not in the bed and could have been the person in the bathroom. Pistorius testified Tuesday that the bedroom was pitch dark.
Botha also cited another witness on the upscale gated community near Pretoria where Pistorius lived as saying he heard a shot, followed 17 minutes later by more shots.
Botha, who arrived at the scene at 4:15 local time to find Steenkamp dead at the bottom of the stairs, also said police had found unlicensed .38 ammunition in Pistorius' house in an upmarket gated compound north of Pretoria.
Pistorius will also be charged for the unlicensed ammo, The Cape Times reported.
AFP/Getty Images
The floorplan of South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius' house in Pretoria.
In an additional revelation Wednesday, police said they found two boxes of testosterone and needles in the Pistorius' bedroom.
Botha claimed in Pistorius' bail hearing in a South African court that testosterone was found. Pistorius has been charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Botha said police made the discovery in the double-amputee runner and multiple Paralympic champion's upscale Pretoria house but offered no further details or explanation. Nel also had to correct Botha when he initially called the substance "steroids."
Pistorius' lawyer, Barry Roux, said on questioning the detective that it was not a banned substance and that police were trying to give the discovery a "negative connotation."
"It is an herbal remedy," Roux said. "It is not a steroid and it is not a banned substance."
Pistorius' defense team disputed Botha's reference to "testosterone", saying the substance was a legitimate herbal remedy called "testo-composutim co-enzyme."
Details on the makeup of testo-composutim co-enzyme were not immediately available but administering testosterone as an anabolic agent is banned at all times under World Anti-Doping Agency rules for sports people.
Getty Images
Inside Oscar's Bathroom: a graphic illustrating a suggested representation of the events that lead to Reeva Steenkamp's death.
Police "take every piece of evidence and try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court," senior defense lawyer Roux said. The debate over the substance added another dramatic twist to a case that has already gripped the world's attention since Steenkamp's killing at Pistorius' home last Thursday.
It was not immediately clear what the substance was.
Prosecutor Nel also said that police were not saying that Pistorius was using the substance, only that it was discovered along with the needles in his bedroom.
The defense also accused police of contaminating the scene while investigating the early morning shooting, according to News24.
Roux claimed that Botha didn't use shoe covers inside Pistorius' home.
Botha said he should have worn them, "but they were not around."
Roux did confirm the athlete has a US bank account.
Roux asked Botha if Steenkamp's body showed "any pattern of defensive wounds," and the detective said it did not.
Botha said the shots were fired from five feet, and that police found three spent cartridges in the bathroom and one in the hallway connecting the bathroom to the bedroom.
Getty Images
Oscar's Weapons: a graphic illustrating the weapons Oscar Pistorius has applied for at the central firearms registry. Six applications are pending.
Police also found two iPhones in the bathroom and two BlackBerrys in the bedroom, Botha said, adding that none had been used to phone for help. Pistorius had said that he called the manager of his guarded and gated housing complex and a private paramedic service.
Roux said Pistorius did make calls, including to the guards of the housing estate. In one case, he said, a guard could hear Pistorius crying.
"Was it part of his premeditated plan, not to switch off the phone and cry?" Roux asked sarcastically.
The court adjourned the bail hearing until Thursday.
Pistorius said Tuesday in a written affidavit and read in court by Roux that he mistakenly killed model Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day when he fired shots into a locked toilet door thinking she was a dangerous intruder.
The prosecution claims Pistorius intended to kill the 29-year-old Steenkamp after they had a fight.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence told The Associated Press soon after the substance claims that Pistorius — the world's most famous disabled athlete — was drug tested twice in London last year by the IPC, on Aug. 25 and Sept. 8. Both test results were negative, Spence said.
The Aug. 25 test was an out-of-competition test, and the Sept. 8 one in-competition, a day before the end of the London Paralympics.
But the impact of Pistorius' arrest has been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where the "Blade Runner" was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.
He carried South Africa's flag at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, and Sports Illustrated named him as one of the most inspiring figures of the year.
"Many questions are being asked, but we have no answers," Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said in a statement.
The sprinter's endorsements and sponsorships included sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler and were thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.
In his affidavit, Pistorius said he earned $630,500 a year and owned properties worth nearly $1 million.
However, Nike and Mugler both said they had dropped Pistorius from advertising campaigns, while cosmetics firm Clarins said it was recalling its "A Man" perfume range out of "respect and compassion towards the families involved".
With AP and Reuters
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