‘I shot her. I thought she was a burglar. I shot her,’ radiologist Johan Stipp recalled Pistorius saying in the minutes after the fatal shooting for which the celebrated athlete is on trial for murder.
A few minutes later, Stipp said, Pistorius went upstairs - the area where he had shot Reeva Steenkamp - and then returned. At that point, Stipp said he was concerned that the gun used in the shooting had not been recovered and that a distraught Pistorius was going to harm himself. The testimony did not address what Pistorius did when he went upstairs.
The testimony in a Pretoria court was the first detailed, public description of the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, by the Olympian in the pre-dawn hours of 14 February - Valentine’s Day - last year.
At his bail hearing last year, Pistorius said in a statement read by lawyer Barry Roux that, after he realized he had shot Steenkamp, he pulled on his prosthetic legs and tried to kick down the toilet door before finally giving up and bashing it in with a cricket bat. Inside, he said he found Steenkamp, slumped over but still alive. He said he lifted her bloodied body and carried her downstairs to seek medical help.
‘It was obvious that she was mortally wounded,’ Stipp said as he described what he saw at Pistorius’ villa. ‘At the bottom of the stairs... there was a lady lying on her back on the floor.’
As a radiologist, Stipp is a medical doctor with years of study, and he said he used his expertise to try to save the shot woman. ‘I tried to assist her.’ Stipp said. ‘I tried to open an airway.’
‘She had no pulse in the neck, she had no peripheral pulse. She had no breathing movements that she made,’ Stipp said.
Sitting on a courtroom bench, Pistorius bent forward and put his hand over his face, then moved them to cover both ears, as Stipp spoke.
A few minutes later, Stipp said, Pistorius went upstairs - the area where he had shot Reeva Steenkamp - and then returned. At that point, Stipp said he was concerned that the gun used in the shooting had not been recovered and that a distraught Pistorius was going to harm himself. The testimony did not address what Pistorius did when he went upstairs.
The testimony in a Pretoria court was the first detailed, public description of the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, by the Olympian in the pre-dawn hours of 14 February - Valentine’s Day - last year.
At his bail hearing last year, Pistorius said in a statement read by lawyer Barry Roux that, after he realized he had shot Steenkamp, he pulled on his prosthetic legs and tried to kick down the toilet door before finally giving up and bashing it in with a cricket bat. Inside, he said he found Steenkamp, slumped over but still alive. He said he lifted her bloodied body and carried her downstairs to seek medical help.
‘It was obvious that she was mortally wounded,’ Stipp said as he described what he saw at Pistorius’ villa. ‘At the bottom of the stairs... there was a lady lying on her back on the floor.’
As a radiologist, Stipp is a medical doctor with years of study, and he said he used his expertise to try to save the shot woman. ‘I tried to assist her.’ Stipp said. ‘I tried to open an airway.’
‘She had no pulse in the neck, she had no peripheral pulse. She had no breathing movements that she made,’ Stipp said.
Sitting on a courtroom bench, Pistorius bent forward and put his hand over his face, then moved them to cover both ears, as Stipp spoke.