A South African prosecutor forced Oscar Pistorius on Wednesday to look at a forensic photograph that showed the head of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after it was blown open by a hollow-point bullet fired by the Olympic and Paralympic track star.
In a dramatic opening to his cross-examination of Pistorius, prosecutor Gerrie Nel made him admit he had killed Steenkamp then later confronted him with the photograph showing the side and back of her skull, her hair matted with blood and brains.
“Have a look there. I know you don’t want to because you don’t want to take responsibility,” Nel said to gasps from the packed public gallery.
“Take responsibility for what you have done,” Nel persisted, his voice rising almost to a shout.
Pistorius responded by burying his head in his hands in the witness stand, rocking from side to side and weeping.
The double amputee sprinter, once revered across the world for his triumph over adversity, faces life in prison if convicted in the Pretoria High Court of the murder of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model.
His defense hinges on his contention that he thought he was firing at an intruder when he shot Steenkamp through a toilet door in his luxury Pretoria home on February 14 – Valentine’s Day – last year.
“Zombie Stopper”
During the 18-day trial, Nel, renowned as one of South Africa’s toughest state attorneys with the nickname ‘The Pitbull’, has sought to show the 27-year-old as a gun-obsessed hot-head.
Early in his questioning, he asked Pistorius if he knew what a “zombie stopper” was, to which the defendant answered no.
After a brief adjournment, the court then viewed video footage broadcast before the trial by Britain’s Sky News of Pistorius firing a .50 caliber handgun at a watermelon at a shooting range.
As the melon disintegrates, Pistorius says off-camera: “It’s a lot softer than brains. But (bleep) it’s like a zombie stopper.”
Nel then pushed the track star, saying he had shot the melon because he wanted to see what a bullet hitting a person’s head looked like.
“You know that the same happened to Reeva’s head. It exploded. I’m going to show you,” he said, before projecting the
forensic photograph of Steenkamp’s head on the court monitors.
Steenkamp was hit by three of four 9 mm rounds fired by Pistorius through the toilet door. One hit her behind the right ear, killing her almost instantly, pathologists had earlier told the court.
Pistorius acknowledged responsibility but refused to lift his head.
“I don’t have to look at a picture. I was there,” he said.
Television stations carrying the feed from the court apologised to viewers as the graphic image was broadcast live.
