Blade Runner Down

In the wee hours of Valentine's Day, 2013, he shot his girlfriend four times with a 9-mm Parabellum pistol, morphing from hero to villain overnight. Oscar Pistorius claimed he thought she was an intruder in the bathroom, a story that will be dissected when his case goes to trial on March 3. The double amputee from South Africa had triumphed as a Paralympics sprinter to become an international athletic star. The first disabled athlete to compete at the Olympics, he had also become a human rights icon. Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner for his sleek, curved racing prosthetics, represented the underdogs of the world, proving the impossible was possible. But as journalist Stephanie Findlay writes in her new Star Dispatches ebook, Blade Runner Down: Oscar Pistorius, His Murder Case and the Violence in South Africa, the tragedy has put a spotlight on guns and on violence in South Africa, especially against women. Pistorious has been charged with premeditated murder, which carries a life sentence.