Reeva Steenkamp’s Harrowing Final Moments Recalled At Pistorius Trial

As Reeva Steenkamp lay dying of gunshot wounds sustained in the home she shared with boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, neighbors recalled a frantic scene with her alleged assailant rushing the wounded woman to first responders.

As Pistorius’ trial resumed, witnesses recounted Reeva Steenkamp’s last living moments, saying the former athlete was distraught and desperate to save his girlfriend after she was shot.

In court in Pretoria, neighbour Carice Viljoen testified about what she experienced the evening Steenkamp was fatally shot in Pistorius’ apartment.

Viljoen explained that after a frantic middle of the night phone call, she arrived to discover Pistorius “carrying Reeva down the stairs,” and said:

“He was just praying to God to save her life and he was talking to Reeva begging her to please stay with him… He said, ‘stay with me my love, stay with me.'”

The woman added that Pistorius was “frantic.”

“You could see he was walking rather fast… from the second we walked into the house he was frantic. He just wanted to get her to hospital.”

Viljoen says that Pistorius began “begging for us to take her to the hospital,” and said he directed her to engage first aid measures to save Reeva’s life:

“Most of the time he had his finger in her mouth as well trying to help her to breathe I suppose… He asked me to keep my finger in her mouth. The whole time he kept on asking me where the ambulance was and we just tried our very best at that stage.”

Another news source reports that Viljoen recalled being fearful at the scene she discovered, and the site indicates that while Pistorius was terrified and tending to Steenkamp, his neighbor was still apprehensive about the situation.

“Paramedics came into the kitchen to check on Pistorius, and they had asked for [Reeva] Steenkamp’s ID. She asked Pistorius where Steenkamp’s handbag was and he went upstairs to fetch it… She said she remained downstairs, but a minute or two later, she followed to call him after her father asked where the athlete had gone. She said she was too scared to go further than the top of the stairs and called for him.”

On the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed, Viljoen and her father, Pistorius’s estate security manager Johan Stander, were the first to arrive on scene after the shooting. Pistorius currently is standing trial in Pretoria for charges relating to her shooting death.