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Oscar Pistorius: 'I Blame Myself for Taking Reeva's Life'

"I fired because I got a fright. I never intended to shoot anyone," double-amputee sprinter testifies.
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Oscar Pistorius told his murder trial that he blamed himself for fatally shooting Reeva Steenkamp.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked Pistorius who he blamed for the incident, to which the double-amputee sprinter replied: "Myself. I blame myself for taking Reeva's life."

Pistorius added: "I fired because I got a fright. I never intended to shoot anyone."

Image: The door through which Reeva Steenkamp was shot, used as evidence and displayed during Oscar Pistorius' murder trial
The door through which Reeva Steenkamp was shot, used as evidence and displayed during Oscar Pistorius' murder trial at the high court in Pretoria on Monday.ANTOINE DE RAS / AFP - Getty Images

On Thursday, Nel accused the 27-year-old Olympian of blaming "anybody but yourself" for Steenkamp's killing and also alleged Pistorius was "lying."

As the fourth day of cross-examination got underway, Nel also suggested that Pistorius had "concocted" his account of the shooting.

He later asked the defendant to take the court through the moments directly before and after he killed the law graduate and model at his home on Feb. 14 last year.

Pistorius denies murder and insists he opened fire through a bathroom door because he was convinced Steenkamp was a hiding intruder. The prosecution alleges the shooting was premeditated and that they had been arguing.

Pistorius said he shouted in fear after firing the shots and went back to the bedroom where he hoped Steenkamp was hiding. He said she was not there, nor behind the bedroom curtains, so he went back to the bathroom to try to open the door through which he had just fired four shots.

But the prosecutor put it to Pistorius that the shouting was directed at Steenkamp. "All the screams and shouts were at her," Nel told the court.

During the morning session, Nel alleged that Steenkamp had packed her clothes because she wanted to flee the house. Pistorius said that wasn't the case.

The trial continues.

- Alexander Smith