Today was the final day of Oscar Pistorius' grilling by Gerrie Nel, and once again, the prosecutor questioned the athlete's story of what happened the night Reeva Steenkamp died. When Pistorius realized he had shot his girlfriend, "Why would you not scream then?" Nel asked him, per NBC News. "It’s the first time you know she’s in the toilet." Pistorius' answer: "I don’t know what the purpose would be of screaming. I was overcome with sadness, I was crying." He said he was focused on checking whether she was alive.
"I heard her breathing so immediately I tried to pick her up and get her out of the toilet," he said. "I was saying: 'Baby, please hold on. Jesus, help me.'" He called emergency services and was told to rush her to the hospital, the New York Times reports. Once he'd carried her downstairs, the building manager told him to lay the body down.
- Nel also questioned the timing involved in Pistorius' account, as well as the presence of Steenkamp's jeans on the floor—which Nel said suggested she pulled them off while arguing. "That makes no sense," said Pistorius. "Why would she get changed into my clothes to leave my house?" (She was wearing a T-shirt and basketball shorts when she died.)
- Once Pistorius had fired and realized Steenkamp wasn't in bed, he attempted to break down the door, first on his own before seeking a cricket bat. "I was crying out for the Lord to help me,” he said, per the Times. “I was screaming for Reeva."
- Amid Pistorius' many displays of emotion, Nel asked: "You are not using your emotional state as an escape, are you?"
- Finally, Nel wondered: "Who should we blame for you having shot her?" Pistorius: "I'm not sure."
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