Oscar Pistorius, the ‘Blade Runner,’ charged with premeditated murder of girlfriend on Valentine’s Day (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

A South African prosecutor has charged Olympian Oscar Pistorius with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.

Defense attorneys for the so-called "Blade Runner" have said the shooting was an accident, with Pistorius mistaking Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder in his Pretoria home.

However, according to the Associated Press, prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court during a bail hearing on Tuesday that Pistorius got up from his bed, put on his prosthetic legs and walked 20 feet, shooting 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp four times through the bathroom door — adding that he had "shot and killed an unarmed woman."

"It was all part of the preplanning. Why would a burglar lock himself inside the bathroom?" Nor has Pistorius provided investigators with his version of events, the prosecutor said.

Nel said the room Steenkamp was in — where she was apparently hiding, he added — measured roughly 16 square feet, and that the experience “must have been horrific.”

Nel told the court the door was broken open after Steenkamp's shooting, when Pistorius allegedly forced his way through.

"There is no possible explanation to support his report that he thought that it was a burglar," the prosecution team said in an affidavit against Pistorius, excerpts of which were published by The Guardian.

"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 'defenceless burglar'.

"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."

Click here for more excerpts from the prosecution's case

Nel added that Steenkamp had arrived at the house between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. the night before she was killed, at 3 a.m.

Multiple reports said that Pistorius — wearing a black suit, blue shirt and grey tie — cried as the prosecutor read out his argument.

Pistorius' father, Henke Pistorius and siblings, Aimee and Carl, attended the bail hearing in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court.

The New York Times cited a lawyer acting for Pistorius, Barry Roux, as saying the defense would "submit that this is not a murder." 

There is no evidence that Pistorius and Steenkamp had fought, and no evidence of a motive for murder, Roux argued.

He said: "There’s no agreement there, not even concession that this is murder."

On Saturday, Pistorius' uncle, Arnold Pistorius, read a statement on behalf of the family that said:

"We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the state's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all."

A memorial service for Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, was being held at a crematorium in the southern coastal city of Port Elizabeth as Pistorius was seeking bail.

South African Springbok rugby player Francois Hougaard, with whom Steenkamp has been linked, attended the ceremony.

The state has said it will oppose bail.  

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