PRETORIA, South Africa — Prosecutor Gerrie Nel fired another tough question at murder suspect Oscar Pistorius.
“Are you sure, Mr. Pistorius, that Reeva did not scream after you fired the first shot?” Nel asked.
The athlete leaned back in the witness box and remained silent. After a tense pause, the Olympic athlete said he wished Reeva Steenkamp had let him know she was in the toilet cubicle where he shot her — by mistake, according to his account. He said she did not scream but also that his ears were ringing with the gunshot and he would not have heard screams.
Pistorius often seemed worn down as the caustic prosecutor picked holes in parts of his story. The dramatic cross-examination has drawn attention to Nel, a prominent state prosecutor dubbed “pit bull” in local media and on social networks.
One of the highlights of his career came in 2010 when he secured the conviction on corruption charges of Jackie Selebi, a former national police commissioner and ex-president of Interpol. Nel got an international prosecutors’ award for his efforts in that case.
Nel’s international profile is ascending further after three days of challenging and even ridiculing the claim by Pistorius, 27, that he accidentally killed Steenkamp, 29, by firing through a closed toilet door, mistaking her for an intruder in his house before dawn Feb. 14, 2013. Nel will continue questioning Pistorius on Monday.
A radio station made a parody rap song about Nel. In The Times, a South African newspaper, cartoonist Zapiro depicted Nel as a bullet, his head on the tip, speeding toward an alarmed Pistorius.
He has a gentler side, according to Rapport newspaper. It reported that in his personal time, Nel teaches children how to wrestle and that he is patient and never loses his temper with his students.
Surrounded by security, Pistorius daily leaves the Pretoria court to fend his way through a crush of press and bystanders. On a recent afternoon, Nel left the court quietly. Despite his celebrity status, he walked across the street, almost unnoticed.
