A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves her funeral in Port Elizabeth Tuesday. (AP)
The coffin of Reeva Steenkamp is carried into the Victoria Park Crematorium for a memorial service in Port Elizabeth, South Africa 19 February 2013. (EPA)
Barry Steenkamp (C-L) father of Reeva Steenkamp is embraced after her memorial service at the Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa 19 February 2013. (EPA)
Raging Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius fired four shots through the door to a small bathroom, slaying his gorgeous girlfriend as she cowered near a toilet, South African prosecutors said today.
The state presented its most detailed account yet of the alleged Valentine’s Day murder of Pistorius’ girlfriend, FHM bikini model Reeva Steenkamp, in a case that’s shocked South Africa and the “Blade Runner’s” legions of fans worldwide.
EXCERPTS FROM PISTORIUS’ AFFIDAVIT
During the same dramatic pre-trial hearing, Pistorius’ legal team framed its defense strategy. The famous runner and double-amputee will claim he fired, believing he was shooting at an intruder.
The jailed Pistorius, 26, wore a gray suit and tie to court. The suspect nodded at Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair when the judge asked if he was well.
The court is set to reconvene tomorrow, when Nair could rule on bail.
Prosecutors described Steenkamp’s final terrifying moments as a brutal hunt.
“She couldn’t go anywhere. You can run nowhere,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said in a packed Pretoria courtroom. “It must have been horrific.”
Nair ruled that Pistorius had to meet the highest standards for bail, since the track star’s been charged with such a serious offense.
The runner must now show “exceptional” reasons why he should be granted bail.
Pistorius, who became an inspirational icon this summer after he became the first double-amputee to ever run in the Olympics, sobbed softly throughout today’s courtroom session.
The beautiful Steenkamp, a law school grad and outspoken advocate for domestic-violence victims, arrived at Pistorius’ high-security home between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday, according to prosecutors.
Pistorius’ defense could not possibly be true, the state said.
“There is no possible explanation to support his report that he thought that it was a burglar,” according to the prosecution’s affidavit.
“Even [in] his own version, he readied himself, walked to the bathroom with the clear intention and plan to kill the ‘burglar’ and did so whilst the burglar was harmless and contained in a toilet. This in itself also constitutes premeditated murder of a ‘defenseless burglar.’ ”
After Pistorius fired four times through the bathroom door — fatally striking Steenkamp three times — the runner broke into the locked room and carried the dying model downstairs, officials said.
“[Pistorius] told his sister that he thought it was a burglar. We argue that this was part of the pre-planning to use as a defense,” according to prosecutors, who speculated Pistorius and Steenkamp had a bitter lovers quarrel.
“Why would a burglar lock himself into a toilet? There may have been an argument earlier between [Pistorius] and the deceased.”
Prosecutors added: “It is our respectful argument that ‘pre-planning’ or premeditation do not require months of planning — if … I ready myself and walk a distance with the intention to kill someone, it is premeditated.”
Conviction of premeditated murder carries a mandatory sentence of life behind bars.
The complicated case is still months away from reaching trial.
The athlete’s defenders said they’ll show how devastated Pistorius was after realizing he had mistakenly shot Steenkamp.
After firing and seeing that the 29-year-old Steenkamp by his side in bed, Pistorius said he flipped out.
“It filled me with horror and fear,” he said in a sworn statement.
The 26-year-old track icon said he used a cricket bat to break down the bathroom door, where picked up the bloodied Steenkamp and tried to get her medical attention.
“She died in my arms,” Pistorius said.
The shooting wasn’t murder, the runner claims.
“We submit it is not even murder,” defense lawyer Barry Roux said. “There is no concession this is a murder.”
While lawyers debated in a Pretoria courtroom, Steenkamp’s loved ones were saying their final goodbyes at a funeral across the country in her native Port Elizabeth.
Uncle Mike Steenkamp broke down in tears, telling reporters that all of Reeva’s family was there: “There is only one thing missing today, Reeva.”
The victim’s brother, Adam, consoled his sobbing uncle and added: “There’s a space missing inside all the people that she knew that can’t be filled again.”
Steenkamp’s slaying has shed light on South Africa’s brutal rate of murder and gun-related slayings.
An estimated 50 people a day are shot to death in the nation of 50 million.
The threat of gun violence — and Pistorius’ vulnerability as a double-amputee — will play a big role in his defense.
“ I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes,” the Pistorius said in his affidavit.
“I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before. For that reason I kept my firearm, a 9 mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.”
With Post Wire Services