OSCAR PISTORIOUS

He was the darling of the 2012 Olympics. A double amputee competing in track and field with a winning smile and a record of defying the odds. Oscar Pistorious was known as "Blade Runner" and became an international superstar as he won race after race and fought for the opportunity to represent South Africa in the Olympic Games. Pistorious was not just fast, he was extremely charismatic and the media ate it up. He was everywhere and easily one of the most famous people from South Africa since Nelson Mandela. It was a really compelling story: a double amputee being able to compete with able-bodied runners in a race. So Pistorious gained a lot of fame, and became a very rich man. He truly embodied the idea of "work hard and you can achieve anything". But on Valentine's day in 2013, his story became much darker. He shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his lavish Pretoria home.

Reeva Steenkamp was considered one of the sexiest women in the world by the people of South Africa and was a very successful model. She and Pistorious were the kind of couple the media absolutely loves. Beautiful woman, handsome man, compelling story, bright future. They had it all. That is, until that fateful night when Oscar shot Reeva. According to the prosecution, Pistorious not only killed Steenkamp, he did it on purpose and not by accident as his defense team claimed. Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel claimed the killing was premeditated and that Pistorius shot Steenkamp deliberately after they had an argument. At the trial he said "You fired four shots through the door whilst knowing that she was standing behind the door". At the trial, pathologist Gert Saayman said Steenkamp was shot in the head, pelvis and arm with "black talon" ammunition. He said these particular bullets open up into a petal-like shape on impact and were "designed to cause maximum damage". This revelation showed that Pistorious had a darker side that the public had not been aware of. His golden boy image was shattered and his status as hero quickly tarnished.

Nel said the killing was premeditated based on contested testimony by those who lived nearby that they heard an argument and a woman screaming prior to shots being fired. The defense argued that the screaming all came from Pistorius. Whether what the witnesses heard were gunshots or the whacks of his cricket bat breaking down the door afterwards was also contested. Concerned about the claim of premeditation, the presiding magistrate asked Nel why Pistorius hadn't staged a break-in to make his story look more believable. Nel replied: "He planned it that night when she (Steenkamp) locked herself in (the toilet)". Based on the evidence presented at trial, Pistorious was clearly guilty of murdering Steenkamp, but the question still remained of why he would do it. It seemed quite out of character and the relationship between Pistorious and Steenkamp was generally loving and there were no red flags or other signs that anything like this was brewing. The text messages of the couple were analyzed and out of 1,700 messages between Pistorius and Steenkamp, only four conversations were argumentative. Pistorious' defense attorney Barry Roux told the Court: "There was a disagreement, unhappiness, but if you look at the messages, it was resolved very quickly". On 13 February (just a few hours before she died), Steenkamp sent Pistorius a text saying: "You are an amazing person with so many blessings and you are more than cared for." Pistorius replied: "Stay tonight if you like." Steenkamp died on Valentine's Day. At one point in the trial, Roux asked Pistorius to read from a Valentine card which Steenkamp had given the athlete before she died. Steenkamp wrote: "I think today is a good day to tell you that, I love you" .

The love they seemed to have shared with one another just did not mesh with the crime Oscar Pistorious committed. Why did this happen? Why would two people who are seemingly in love both privately and publicly end up as murderer and victim? But when scouring the rumor mills, I came across an interesting post on a social media site. Usually everything I read online that is not from a reputable source is generally not considered valid information, but this one came with screenshots and had a lot of details. Basically, a friend of Reeva Steenkamp reported numerous changes in her demeanor soon after she began to date Oscar Pistorious. "The usually open and candid Reeva was cagey about her relationship with him, even with us. From our perspective, their entire relationship became about Oscar and his friends. The few times that we saw Reeva before Valentine's Day 2013, she was always alone. This was the case with most of Reeva's friends. Very few ever met Oscar. He didn't seem to take any interest in her life, family or friends. The relationship was very one-sided with everything being on Oscar's terms." The way the relationship was described by her friends was clearly not healthy. This could indicate that it was a controlling relationship.

Controlling relationships often end up in tragedy. Violence and controlling behaviors go hand-in-hand. The nature of a controlling person is that they cannot deal with anything that is not within their ideal version of life. Women are especially vulnerable in these kinds of relationships because statistically men are more likely to react violently and impulsively than women. If Pistorious was a person prone to fits of rage and was as paranoid as some people have implied, his actions may have actually been justifiable in his own mind. The evidence shows that he knew Steenkamp was in the bathroom when he fired the gun, but if he was having an episode of severe anxiety, his paranoia may have caused him to act in a dangerous way. A psychiatrist called as a defense witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial said that the South African Olympian has an anxiety disorder that affects how he responds to perceived threats. Dr. Merryll Vorster said events in Pistorius' childhood, like the amputation of his lower legs and his late mother's paranoid habit of sleeping with a gun under her pillow, contributed to his "escalating levels of anxiety".

Most people would agree that there is a line between paranoia and genuine need for protection. Americans are very into their guns, with more than 120 guns being owned per 100 people, but in South Africa, the gun culture is much less significant. Only 9.7 guns are owned per 100 people, which is a far cry from the heavily armed Americans. If Pistorious already owned a gun, this would indicate that he was much more likely to be paranoid about home invasion than a typical South African resident. According to his own defense, Pistorious was extremely paranoid and felt the need to have a gun nearby when he slept just like his mother had slept with a gun under her pillow. Had he not been so paranoid, we would probably be sick of seeing him on TV, billboards and all other forms of media to this day. Had he not been so paranoid, he would not have had a gun, and he likely would not have been able to kill Reeva Steenkamp. Unlike the prolonged downfall of so many other elite athletes, for Pistorious it was a sudden and shocking end to an inspirational story. His fall was abrupt and catastrophic. There was no extended period of malaise, it simply reversed overnight. The Blade Runner went from one of the world's most inspirational people to a tragic footnote.