Watermelon remark ‘distasteful’ – Oscar
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius admitted in his murder trial on Wednesday that a comment he made about an exploding watermelon he shot at was distasteful.
Aimee Pistorius (R), sister of paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, reacts during his murder trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday, 9 April 2014. Pistorius sobbed in the witness stand on Tuesday as he described how, gripped by fear, he shot dead his girlfriend through a locked toilet door thinking she was an intruder. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters/Pool
“That day I shot at a watermelon and the comment I made was distasteful. It was made with reference to a watermelon and not to Reeva,” he told the High Court in Pretoria under cross-examination by prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
“Am I correct in saying that your shooting at a watermelon was to see what the effect would be if you shoot somebody in the brain?” Nel asked him.
Pistorius replied he had shot at many materials, including wood.
The video, in which Pistorius refers to a gun as “a zombie stopper”, was screened in the court. It shows Pistorius and several other people at a shooting range.
The murder-accused fires at a watermelon with a handgun. As he hits it and it explodes, there are whoops of triumph.
“It’s not as soft as brains but f*** it’s a zombie stopper,” a person who sounds much like Pistorius is heard saying. The video found its way online.
Pistorius shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, apparently thinking she was an intruder, through the locked door of his toilet on February 14 last year.
He found her slumped over the toilet after he broke the door down. She was shot in the hip, arm, and head.
The athlete is charged with murder and with contravening the Firearms Control Act. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
Pistorius has denied guilt on all the charges.
– Sapa
