Oscar Pistorius shot girlfriend with especially lethal bullets, pathologist testifies

PRETORIA, South Africa — Athlete Oscar Pistorius used expanding bullets that mushroom on impact and cause maximum tissue damage when he shot his girlfriend to death, a pathologist testified on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) in a South African court.

One of those bullets penetrated Reeva Steenkamp’s head and broke up in her brain, causing a catastrophic injury, and another hit her right hip, shattered a hip bone and broke into small pieces in her body, said pathologist Gert Saayman, who conducted the autopsy. A third bullet hit her arm, shattering the bone.