Olympian Pistorius released 9 years after conviction for murder
PRETORIA, South Africa — Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became a global star competing at his sport’s highest level while running on carbon-fiber blades, was released from prison Friday after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius, 37, served nearly nine years of his murder sentence of 13 years and five months for the fatal shooting of Steenkamp at his home on Valentine’s Day 2013. He became eligible for early release having served at least half his sentence, and was approved for parole in November.
Pistorius will live under strict parole conditions, including a ban on speaking to the media, until his sentence expires in December 2029. He is expected to initially live at his uncle’s mansion in the upscale Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof.
Pistorius maintains that he shot Steenkamp, 29, in error after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder hiding in a bathroom in his Pretoria villa in the middle of the night. He fired four times through a locked toilet cubicle door, hitting Steenkamp in the head, hip and hand.
Prosecutors alleged that he intentionally killed her in anger during an argument.
In addition to her modeling career, Steenkamp was a reality TV star with a law degree who had become an activist against the scourge of violence against women in South Africa — a tragic irony given how she died.
Pistorius’ parole conditions include restrictions on when he’s allowed to leave home, a ban on consuming alcohol, and orders that he must attend programs on anger management and violence against women.
He must also perform community service.
Before the killing, Pistorius was seen as a role model after having had both of his legs amputated below the knee as a baby because of a congenital condition. He became a champion sprinter and made history by competing against nondisabled athletes at the 2012 London Olympics.
His trial destroyed his image.
He was accused of being prone to angry outbursts and acting recklessly with guns, while witnesses testified about altercations he had with others.
Sentence in Mcclain case:
A former Colorado officer was sentenced Friday to 14 months in jail in the death of Elijah Mcclain, a young Black man who was stopped by police while walking home in 2019.
Mcclain’s death helped galvanize racial justice protests the following year.
Colorado District Judge Mark Warner sentenced former Aurora police Officer Randy Roedema to the jail time for a third-degree assault conviction, ordering that some of that time may be served as work release toward 200 hours — or five weeks — of community service.
The judge also sentenced Roedema to four years of probation on a conviction for negligent homicide.
Among the three officers charged in Mcclain’s 2019 death, Roedema was the only one found guilty.
Mcclain’s death became a rallying cry and received new attention amid the national reckoning on race and police brutality after George Floyd was murdered in May 2020 by Minneapolis police.
New gun law: More than 500 gun purchases have been blocked since a new gun law requiring stricter background checks for young people went into effect in 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, the day after a school shooting in Iowa left a sixth grader dead.
The bipartisan law passed in June 2022 was the most sweeping gun legislation in decades and requires extra checks for any gun purchases by people under age 21. Those denied a gun purchase include a person convicted of rape, a suspect in an attempted murder case and someone who had been involuntarily committed for mental-health treatment, according to the Justice Department.
The 2022 law was passed after a series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. The measure was a compromise that also included steps to keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people found to be dangerous.
Japan earthquake: A woman was pulled from the rubble 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan’s western coast. Despite rescue efforts, the death toll Friday grew to at least 94 people, and the number of missing was lowered to 222 after it shot up the previous day.
An older man was found alive Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture.
More than 460 people have been injured, at least 24 seriously. Evacuation centers now house about 34,000 people who lost their homes, many of them older.
Ukraine drone attacks: Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones
in occupied Crimea and southern Russia on Friday, officials said, as Kyiv pressed its strategy of targeting the Moscow-annexed peninsula and taking the war well beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, and traffic was suspended for a second straight day on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized illegally a decade ago, with Russia’s Krasnodar region.
The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war effort.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its defenses intercepted 36 drones over Crimea and one over Krasnodar, part of an emerging pattern of intensified Ukrainian aerial attacks in recent days.
The developments came after three people were injured Thursday night by other Ukrainian rocket and drone attacks on the Russian border city of Belgorod and the surrounding region, said
Europe flooding: Residents of riverside towns in England that were swamped by rains that washed over Europe this week bailed out Friday as flooding disrupted train service and officials warned that waters could rise in the days ahead.
A storm that brought damaging winds inundated more than 1,000 homes and businesses and left several communities under muddy water, officials said. Buildings and cars were submerged as streets turned to streams, farmland was flooded and boats were torn from their moorings.
A landslide and floodwaters disrupted train travel on several lines operating out of London and on routes in southwest England that stretch into Wales.
Heavy rains also left parts other parts of Europe under water as a cold snap gripped northern areas of the continent.