Oscar trial – Tasha’s shooting: finger not on trigger

“I can’t remember having my finger on the trigger,” Pistorius told prosecutor Gerrie Nel during cross-examination.

Pistorius consistently avoided making eye contact with Nel and kept his gaze firmly on Judge Thokozile Masipa as he spoke.

The athlete is charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act.

In one of these he allegedly fired a shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.

The restaurant was full and there were children at the next table at the time.

Fresco had passed him the gun as Pistorius said he was considering buying a similar model.

“I tried to make sure that the firearm was safe. As the round came out of the breach I realised that the firearm was ‘one up’. When I asked him (Fresco) why the firearm was ‘one up’ it went off,” said Pistorius.

“One up” means there is a bullet in the chamber.

“I must then accept that the gun went off by itself? You just refuse to take responsibility for anything,” Nel told him.

When Nel asked him what happened to the round ejected from the chamber, Pistorius at first could not remember, but then said it fell onto a chair.

“Then you remember all of a sudden,” Nel said sarcastically.

Nel pointed out that this model of Glock had a safety mechanism on the trigger.

This means the gun cannot be fired unless a finger is on the trigger.

State witness ballistics expert Captain Chris Mangena, previously testified to this.

Nel then asked Pistorius why his lawyer Barry Roux had not cross-examined Mangena about this.

“If Mr Roux did not put it to Captain Mangena that it’s possible for that gun to fire without pulling the trigger, he made a mistake,” said Nel.

Pistorius is accused of the murder of Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year.

He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder. She was struck in the hip, arm and head.

He is also charged with illegal possession of ammunition and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.

Pistorius has denied guilt on all the charges.

– Sapa