Oscar Pistorius to face gun charges unrelated to murder case

South African runner Oscar Pistorius was indicted Wednesday on two new charges that are believed to allege he fired guns in public during separate incidents that occurred before he killed his girlfriend in his apartment in February.

Already indicted on a main charge of murder in the shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp as well as a charge of illegal possession of ammunition, the double-amputee hero of the 2012 London Olympics will likely have to defend himself against all four charges at his trial scheduled for March.

Nathi Mncube, a spokesman for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority, told the Associated Press that Pistorius’ lawyers were served with the new charges, but he declined to offer many details, other than they “relate to the contravention of the firearms act.”

According to the AP, media reports in South Africa indicate that the charges relate to two incidents in which authorities said Pistorius recklessly fired a gun in public.

In the first, the runner allegedly fired his 9-millimeter handgun -- the same one that killed Steenkamp -- out of an open sunroof of a car in Johannesburg last year.

The other incident allegedly occurred in January, weeks before Steenkamp’s death, when Pistorius accidentally fired a friend’s gun under the table at a Johannesburg restaurant, apparently while admiring it.

The athlete known as the Blade Runner already faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder in the Steenkamp case. He has said the shooting was an accident.

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