On Wednesday, a ballistics expert gave his testimony in court, which include how Reeva Steenkamp could have positioned herself against a cubicle door on the night she was fatally shot by her boyfriend, once-celebrated Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. Yahoo! Sports said that portion of the expert's testimony had the athlete plugging his ears using his thumbs while covering his entire face.
According to the sports news report, Captain Chris Mangena told the Pretoria High Court that Steenkamp would have most likely cowered behind the locked door and shielded her face in an attempt to brace herself from a series of shots from Pistorius' gun towards her. The police officer also demonstrated in court what could have been the late model's body stance moments before she took the athlete's shots. Mangena also showed the court how Steenkamp's wrists were crossed, which was an attempt to protect her head. Yahoo! Sports said Pistorius fired four shots at the bathroom door.
Another expert, pathologist Gert Saayman, insinuated to Courtroom GD last week that Pistorius could have stopped firing after the first shot as it was impossible that Steenkamp would not have screamed after she received the shot in her hip or arms. Yahoo! Sports said Saayman conducted Steenkamp's autopsy. Pistorius' defense team has been arguing in court that their client thought that Steenkamp was the intruder before firing his 9mm Taurus pistol pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day last year.
Mangena also said in court that although the first two or three shots injured her, the last ones had killed her.
"(When the first bullet was fired), she was standing in front of the door, facing the door. That bullet penetrated and broke the hip bone of the deceased, (causing her to fall. On impact with the skull, the (third or fourth) bullet broke into two fragments. One penetrated the skull and was removed during postmortem, and the other piece of the fragment exited towards the back of the head. She dropped immediately."
Mangena also rejected the claims by Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux that the athlete used two shots in rapid succession, or double taps. The ballistics expert also countered Roux's attempts to fit in Pistorius' alternative version of the shooting incident, Yahoo! Sports said.
Mangena, who was gesturing at his abdomen, argued, "It's impossible. If it's two double taps, then all the wounds would be in the same position. There wouldn't be any time for her to change position in that instance."
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