Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was today charged with murder after allegedly shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead at his mansion in Pretoria, South Africa.
Reeva Steenkamp, 29, a former FHM model who had been dating the 26-year-old for two months, was shot four times in the head, chest and arm inside his home at 4:00 a.m.
Oscar Pistorius may have killed Reeva Steenkamp with a handgun kept next to his bed after a Valentine’s Day surprise went tragically wrong and he thought she was a burglar, sources have said.
But police say Reeva Steenkamp’s death is being treated as murder, adding that officers had been sent to previous incidents of a “domestic nature” at Oscar Pistorius’ address on the exclusive Silver Woods gated estate.
Brigadier Denise Beukes added police were “very surprised” by the intruder suggestion, telling reporters: “These allegations did not come from us.”
Oscar Pistorius was due in court this afternoon but the hearing has now been delayed to 9:00 a.m. and the sprinter is in custody.
Police were called to his home in the upmarket Silver Woods gated compound on the outskirts of South Africa’s administrative capital in the early hours of Thursday morning.
They found paramedics treating a 29-year-old woman with four gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. Reeva Steenkamp died at the scene, and officers recovered a 9 mm pistol.
Early reports suggested Oscar Pistorius might have mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder.
Police say neighbors heard screaming and shouting around the time of the shooting, and that they had been called to investigate incidents of a domestic nature at the same house in the past.
They also said that they would oppose any bail application.
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