South Africa's Paralympian star Oscar Pistorius, currently on trial for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, was thrown out of a nightclub over the weekend after being involved in a drunken brawl, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday. Although an altercation was confirmed by Pistorius' media representative Anneliese Burgess, she denied that it was a case of a "bar brawl."
The incident took place at the VIP Room of a plush Johannesburg nightclub on Saturday night with another patron, Jared Mortimer, it said. After being introduced to Mortimer, Pistorius allegedly launched into a tirade of how Mortimer's friends had "screwed" him over, Mortimer told the newspaper.
"We were drinking tequila and I still remember putting down my drink and thinking I couldn't drink it while my friends were being spoken of like that," he said, adding that the sprinter known as the "Blade Runner" got aggressive at some point in the conversation and started poking him in the chest. "He was close to my face and at that point I pushed him to get him away from me," he said. "A chair was behind his legs and he fell to the ground."
Since the scene was hidden by curtains of the VIP area of the club in Sandton, a wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg, nobody could see Pistorius was there. "A little bit later he had a confrontation with another man and the bouncers were asked to please remove him because he was causing trouble," Mortimer continued.
Another witness described the athlete as "flat-out drunk," Agence France-Presse reported. "He came up to us and pulled zap signs in our faces. That's when I realized it was Pistorius." said the unidentified witness.
However, Burgess narrated a different scene of events. "We can confirm that Oscar was at the said venue with one of his cousins. They sat in a quiet booth in the VIP section when they were approached by an individual who has now been identified as a Mr. Mortimer."
"The individual, according to my client, started to aggressively interrogate him on matters relating to the trial," Burgess added. "An argument ensued during which my client asked to be left alone. Oscar soon thereafter left the club with his cousin. My client regrets the decision to go to a public space and thereby inviting unwelcome attention."
The day after the altercation, Pistorius broke five months of silence on social websites with a series of tweets on love and pain, including a quote from the Bible.
Pistorius, 27, is standing trial after being accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. His trial is set to resume on August 7 for closing arguments.
