During his emotional testimony regarding the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorius recounted the moments after he shot through the bathroom door at a supposed intruder: 

"Whilst I leant over the partition to get in, I saw the key, so I took it and I unlocked the door, and I flung the door open, and I threw it open, and I sat over Reeva and I cried... and um, I don't know how long... I don't know how long I was there for...she wasn't breathing."

My concern with his account is that it seems to be no surprise to him that Reeva was the one he shot. If he truly thought there was an unknown intruder in the bathroom whom he shot in self-defense, when he entered the bathroom and saw that it wasn't an unknown intruder but it was in fact his girlfriend Reeva, there should have been some account of that in his statement; surprise, shock, horror, panic...something rather than simply saying "I sat over Reeva and cried"

Also, from his account it appears that he knew the door was locked. He stated, "I saw the key, so I took it and I unlocked the door" never saying that he tried to open the door and the door was locked (which would be an unlikely act anyway if you were in fear and thought there was an intruder behind the locked door). Did they have an argument and she ran in the bathroom and locked the door? Maybe she wouldn't come out or let him in, and he got so enraged that he fired his gun through the door?

Furthermore, there is sensitivity as he recounts going into the bathroom. He stated "I saw the key, so I took it and I unlocked the door" rather than simply saying "I took the key and unlocked the door." This unnecessary language of “I saw the key, so I took it” adds sensitivity to his actions. This is also followed by additional sensitivity due to repeated action; "I flung the door open, and I threw it open" which seems to demonstrate anger rather than fear. However, he is claiming he was in fear for his life, but this demonstration of anger is more in alignment with the scenario that I mentioned above.   

Unfortunately, Reeva is not alive to testify herself, so we only have Oscar’s testimony to go on. It is easy to get caught up in the emotional display of his testimony, which was very dramatic and moving, but we have to make sure we really listen to what he stated…words matter.

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