Oscar Pistorius’s story is one full of inspiration and dedication. Unfortunately, his legacy is now marked with a dark cloud and it made its way into households across the whole world.
Pistorius is a double amputee, who competed in the 2012 London Paralympics. He won silver and two gold medals. His girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was a beautiful up and coming model who had made an appearance on a reality TV show.
The case is full of speculation and rumors, and every day it seems that some new information is released. The important things to know are: the incident happened on Valentine’s Day and Steenkamp was found dead in the bathroom with four gunshot wounds. According to the South African City Press, Steenkamp’s skull was crushed before she was shot.
They found a bloody cricket bat on the scene: the main piece of evidence. Pistorius is being charged with premeditated murder.
The main claim that Pistorius is making is that he mistook his girlfriend for someone breaking into his house. He woke up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise in the bathroom. He mistook this noise for an intruder. He then grabbed his gun and fired four shots into the bathroom.
Life in South Africa is very different from the United States, and due to the high crime rate, the wealthy have to live in gated and guarded communities like Pistorius. South Africa is the type of place that most people are armed just in case of an emergency. The crime rate has people paranoid, and accidental shootings have happened there before. In his affidavit the Washington Post published, he stated: “I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders, 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 9mm Parabellum,underneath my bed.” He went on to say: “I felt a sense of terror rushing over me, I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself.”
If he had been sleeping with this girlfriend in the same bed and woke up to her not being next to him, wouldn’t one assume that the noise was just her in the bathroom? Most intruders do not go for items in the bathroom. The intruder scenario also does not explain the injury to the skull and conflicts with the fact that he had his prosthetic legs off and the bloody racket.
People were claiming that Pistorius was on steroids and was ‘roid raging’ but no substance was found in further investigations. Neighbors reported that they heard arguing coming from Pistorius’s residence that night and law enforcement have been called to the Pistorius residents before.
Oscar Pistorius’s brother is coming under the spot light as well. Back in 2010, Carl Pistorius was involved in a motorcycle accident, killing one woman motorcyclist. He is being tried with homicide for a crime that happened in 2010. This adds yet another twist in the case that just doesn’t make sense.
This case has been referred to as the O.J. Simpson of our generation. There are a lot of similarities between the cases: famous athlete, beautiful girlfriend and a lot of weird twists and turns.
The difference between the two is it is blatantly obvious that Pistorius shot Steenkamp whether he meant to or not. This is bringing up something has been very common in the media recently, famous athletes falling from grace.
First with Lance Armstrong, Simpson, and now with Pistorius, it seems that being a professional athlete is not all what it is cracked up to be.
