An ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius testified Friday that the Paralympian star sprinter often carried a gun with him and once fired at a traffic light after a confrontation with police.
An emotional Samantha Taylor, who met Pistorius in 2010 when she was 17 years old, tearfully described the sprinter as someone familiar with guns, prone to fits of anger and an unfaithful boyfriend.
Taylor took to the stand, testifying that in 2010 on the way back from a day trip to a popular city getaway Pistorius was in a car that was pulled over by the police for speeding.
When a police officer inspected Pistorius's weapon, left on a seat when he exited the car, Pistorius became angry, "Oscar shouted at the policeman and said he shouldn't touch his gun," said Taylor.
He later shot at a traffic light, "out of spite after being stopped."
"He was angry at the police after being stopped, thereafter when they wanted to fire a shot they found it funny," she said, referring to Pistorius and a friend who was with him at the time.
The firing of the weapon is one of three firearms charges Pistorius faces in addition to a charge of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.
"Did you know, did the accused own a gun during your relationship?" asked state prosecutor Gerrie Nel. "Yes, my lady," said Taylor.
"How did you know that?" pressed Nel. "He kept it on him all the time, my lady," said Taylor.
Frequently breaking down in tears, Taylor, a woman wearing a white jacket with a soft voice and Bambi eyes, recounted the history of the pair's troubled relationship.
Taylor said they met at a rugby match and later "he added me on Facebook."
Their relationship ended for good in 2012, Taylor claimed, because "he cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp."
Pistorius took Steenkamp to the South African Sport Awards on November 4 that year.
The couple denied being together at the time. "We're just friends. I promise I'll tell you if there's anything more," said Steenkamp when asked about her relationship with Pistorius at the event to local newspaper City Press.
"It's just a coincidence that we're sitting at the same table and arrived in the same car," she said.
Taylor also dismissed the defence's assertion that witnesses heard Pistorius and not Steenkamp scream on that February 14 -- because he screams like a woman.
"That is not true, he sounds like a man" when he screams, she said.
Judge Thokozile Masipa adjourned court twice when Taylor broke down crying during her testimony. Pistorius watched Taylor as she was consoled by her sister, clenching his jaw so hard the tendons in his cheek bulged.
