Woman shot by cop boyfriend ‘making progress’ in hospital

ZAHEDA PETERS is recovering in hospital after being shot and wounded by her police officer boyfriend on Monday, the family said yesterday.

Peters’s uncle Noor Rhode said she faces a long road to recovery. On Monday, Detective Nevell du Toit, 44, shot Peters, 31, twice before turning the gun on himself. Du Toit died on the scene.

Rhode said the family were thankful Peters’s two children, aged eight and 11, were with their father in Grassy Park at the time of the shooting.

Doctors have told the family that Peters, who works as an administration clerk at UCT, was making progress.

“We are taking each day as it comes. Zaheda is in a critical but stable condition, and the last time we spoke to the doctors they said she was doing well and had made some improvement.

“I will not speculate on what might have happened if the children were with her at the time, but we are thankful they weren’t,” Rhode said.

Du Toit’s twin brother Neil told the Cape Times on Monday that no one had anticipated that he would shoot Peters and himself.

Yesterday, he said that he hoped Peters’s family would be able to forgive Nevell for what he did.

Rhode said the family had not yet discussed it, as their primary focus was Peters’s recovery.

Police watchdog body, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), has launched an investigation on the shooting.

Ipid’s spokeperson Grace Langa said a case of attempted murder was being followed, and the directorate had opened an inquest docket. francesca.villette@inl.co.za

@FrancescaJaneV