PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — A month before he fatally shot his girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius cajoled a friend into taking the blame when a gun was accidentally fired under the Johannesburg restaurant table where he and other friends were sitting, according to testimony yesterday in the double-amputee runner’s murder trial.

“Just say it was you. I don’t want any tension around me,” witness Kevin Lerena remembered Pistorius telling a friend. “There’s too much media hype around me.”

The testimony by Lerena, a boxer, raises questions about the character of a man who insists he accidentally killed Reeva Steenkamp in his home in the early hours of February 14 last year. Prosecutors allege he intentionally shot 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and television personality, after a loud argument.

Lerena was the first witness in the globally watched trial, which started Monday, to allow himself to be broadcast on television under a judge’s order allowing cameras into the courtroom but preserving the right of some witnesses not to be shown. The boxer wore a suit and leaned forward with an intent expression as he answered lawyers’ questions.

His testimony about the restaurant shooting was a reminder of how 27-year-old Pistorius, who ran for South Africa in the 2012 Olympics, once commanded respect among his peers. The boxer described Pistorius as “an icon and a legend in sport” and said he sought advice from the runner about diet and running.

The episode occurred during a busy lunchtime at Tashas restaurant in the swank Melrose Arch area of Johannesburg in January 2013, and relates to three firearms-related charges against Pistorius, in addition to the murder charge. Pistorius pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

One friend, Darren Fresco, passed his gun to Pistorius under the table and told him that there was a bullet in the chamber, Lerena said. Then a shot went off, puncturing the floor near Lerena’s foot, he said.

“There was just complete silence,” said Lerena, who described being in shock and having blood where his toe was grazed in the incident. Then, he said, Pistorius apologised, saying: “Are you OK? Is everybody OK?”