On the fourth day of his murder trial, Oscar Pistorius reportedly broke down as a neighbour described the moment he tried to save the athlete's mortally wounded girlfriend after a fatal shooting on Valentine's Day 2013.
Witness Johan Stipp, a doctor who lived close by, said he found the South African Paralympic star praying over the body of his girlfriend as she lay dying.
He said he saw Steenkamp, her brain tissue mixed with blood and Pistorius praying for her to live. In the trial's first account of the moments after the shooting, Stipp said he tried to revive Ms Steenkamp.
During Dr Stipp's graphic testimony, Pistorius cried and seemed to retch, the BBC reported.
"I remember the first thing he said when I got there was, 'I shot her, I thought she was a burglar and I shot her,' " Stipp told the court in Pretoria.
Stipp said he had been surprised to hear no ambulance had been called when he arrived. He left after it did.
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Pistorius is charged with shooting Steenkamp three times out of four shots through a toilet door in his home. Prosecutors said the athlete intentionally killed Steenkamp after an argument, but Pistorius says it was a mistake and he thought she was an intruder.
Earlier, Charl Johnson – husband of the trial's first witness – was back on the stand after the defense team wanted to retrieve notes he had taken in the weeks after the shooting. Roux grilled Johnson about the notes such as "the screams did not sound like fighting but more like the panic and distress calls of being attacked."
Pistorius pleaded not guilty Monday to one charge of murder and a firearms charge associated with Steenkamp's killing as well as the two gun indictments unrelated to her death. The trial continues.