Oscar Pistorius’s uncle Arnold said Wednesday in a TV interview that the famous South African sprinter was in shock in a Pretoria jail, and only started eating on Tuesday – nearly a week after shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
“He only started to eat last night,” Arnold told eNews Channel Africa. “Carl and Aimee [Pistorius’s siblings] tell me they sit with him and he spends a lot of time reading, especially reading the Bible, as his mother taught him.”
Pistorius has been jailed since he was arrested last Thursday after police were called to his home in Pretoria, South Africa by neighbors who allegedly heard shouting and gunshots. The sprinter admits to shooting Steenkamp, but says he believed his girlfriend was an intruder when he shot her three times through his bathroom door last week.
“I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder as I had no intention to kill my girlfriend,” Pistorius wrote in a statement that was read for him in court while he sobbed.
Pistorius’s bail application is being challenged in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, but Arnold says the family believes Oscar is innocent of the crime and they stand by him.
“The truth will prevail,” uncle Arnold added. “The world will see a different Oscar; nobody can be the same ever again if such a tragedy comes over your life, but he will bounce back and be greater than ever.”
