UPDATE: Oscar Pistorius Slowly Moves Forward to Judgment Day

 “When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.” 

― Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs

This post is a follow up to my prior story about the “Blade Runner”—Oscar Pistorius. Oscar Pistorius will be indicted for murder this coming Monday. It is expected at this point that he will go on trial in early 2014, about a year after he allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home on Valentine’s Day.

In a cruel twist of fate, his court appearance will be on the date of his dead girlfriend’s birthday.

Pistorius was a famous and revered athlete because he is a double-amputee Olympian. He was a star not only in the world of professional track and field sports, but to anybody who admires underdog stories.

Pistorius showed us that seemingly unachievable goals can be attained with an indomitable spirit and the willingness to commit a lifetime to working hard with what God gives us when we are born.

Unfortunately, Pistorius’ achievements have all crumbled as a result of a brutal, savage, and senseless murder.

As mentioned in my prior post about Pistorius, he was arrested for shooting his girlfriend numerous times with a 9mm pistol as she cowered in a bathroom. She was shot in her head, elbow and hip.

She was thirty years old.

When police questioned Pistorius about the shooting, he gave some bizarre statements about repeatedly shooting through the bathroom door because he thought there was an intruder in his home and he was terrified.  Police investigated the scene of the crime, compared the crime scene with Pistorius’ version of the shooting, and very easily determined that Pistorius was lying.

Amazingly, one of his numerous excuses was that he shot through the bathroom door because he thought there was an intruder (in the bathroom?) and it was pitch black in the house. He said that he thought Reeva was still in bed, which begs the question, why would he not make sure she was safe before spraying bullets?

Laurie Peters, a criminologist, says the fact that he didn't check whether Reeva, whom he shot four times while she was in the bathroom, was in bed or not was illuminating. She says: "He didn't even bother to find out where Reeva was before he fired blindly into the dark. That would be a red flag to me because psychologically the first thing you would do is find the people you want to protect."

Pistorius faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if convicted on the charge of premeditated murder.  Police said this week they had completed their six-month investigation and are convinced Pistorius "had a charge to answer to," leading to the indictment. Pistorious’ lawyers want the charge reduced to culpable homicide, which essentially means that he had no “intention” to kill his girlfriend (albeit firing numerous times through a bathroom door where lshe was located and no doubt screaming for her life). Pistorious has posted bail and is free pending trial.

Additional charges are possible according to authorities. Although law enforcement officials have not disclosed any information, media reports have recently leaked that charges relating to Pistorius allegedly discharging a firearm recklessly in two other incidents would be added to the indictment.

Pistorius apparently had incidents in the past exhibiting a troubling lack of control with impulse and anger.                      

Let’s wait to see if fame and fortune does not blind the decision makers of Pistorius’ fate---causing a disregard of the pain that Reeva suffered in her last terrifying minutes of life---as is increasingly the norm these days.

~Leonardo G. Renaud