Through My Eyes

The incident happened in his house at about three in the morning. Neighbours heard screaming and shouting followed by gunshots.

Imagine how different things would work out if he did not keep a gun on his bedside table. Imagine if he kept his cellphone with the emergency number on speed dialespecially when living in a super safe gated community like Silver Lakes.

Even in a crime-ridden country like ours, guns don't make their owners safer. Crime victims who attempt to defend themselves are much more likely to be killed or wounded than those who do not. This holds true even when their criminal assailants are themselves unarmed. Guns turn every conflict into a matter of life and death for all parties involved.

I'm still trying to get my head around how shooting four bullets through a locked bathroom door can be an accident.

If we give him the benefit of the doubt and he actually believed it to be an intruder then two questions must be answered.

Was there a window the intruder could have entered through and therefore escape through?

If the intruder could not exit through a window but only through the door then surely with a gun pointing at the door the intruder would have had no alternative but to stay put and wait for the police to arrive.

One thing that does worry me however is the leaking of evidence surrounding the case such as her suffering a fractured skull and a cricket bat covered in blood, the screams that neighbours heard before shots were fired, previous disturbances and two phone calls that were made by him before emergency services were called.

The second question concerns the movement of her body. If you are trying to save someone, you surely would try and save her where the body lay, moving a body would only lead to further damage and also losing valuable time.

The sad reality is that it could have been prevented as previous reports of abuse were reported in his home. His fame shielded him from the law. It seems that a lot of people were willing to look the other way as this incident between him and his girlfriend was not the first.

I think that expecting our athletes to be role models is about as realistic as expecting our elected officials to look out for what's best for our country, or expecting CEO's to do the right thing when the regulations governing their actions are relaxed.

Nearly everyone will take advantage of whatever edge he or she can find to make him or her better or look better and this tends to leave them with an attitude that they are above the rest of us and can get away with anything because mostly, they have. At the end of the day, they / we are all just people in the traffic jam of life, looking for the opportunity to get one car ahead...

With all the awareness focusing on the Abolishing Violence against Women, PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES! Get out the very first time someone hits you or abuses you in any way. Studies show that it will not be the last and it will only get worse.