A 23-year-old woman from Mbizo 14 in Kwekwe was allegedly shot by a police officer who was part of the team that besieged her home to arrest her brother who was wanted on assault charges, CITE has established.
The incident reportedly happened on January 8 around 11 pm.
The victim has been identified as Deon Jayne Craig and the bullet is still lodged in her right foot.
Craig`s sister, Glemis Moyo narrated the incident to CITE.
“She was shot by the police on 8 January around 2300hours. They wanted to arrest my brother so when they came home, and knocked on the door. When we inquired who it was, they identified themselves as police officers,” said Moyo.
“When we opened the door, they inquired about Maxwell’s whereabouts and we showed them his room. They knocked on his door and there was no response.”
Moyo said the police officers wanted to throw a tear gas canister inside the room to force his brother to come out and they pleaded with them a there was a baby inside the room.
“I then called out for Maxwell’s wife to come out with the child. When she came out, three officers went inside while the others remained outside.”
She added that at that time Deon went to the toilet a few metres from the house and one of the police officers inside Maxwell`s room called out to his colleagues who had remained outside to fetch a gun from the car.
After fetching the gun, the police officer fired a warning shot into the air and the second shot reportedly hit Deon while on her way from the toilet.
Moyo said her 12-year-old child collapsed.
“After some minutes, while we were still trying to resuscitate my child who had collapsed. I then remembered seeing Deon on her way back from the toilet. I took a torch followed her because we planted maize it was a bit dark. I found her lying on the ground,” she said.
“We took Deon into the car and headed straight to the police station to inform them that they shot someone but they didn’t take any action, we ended up calling their boss and he is the one who pressured them to take Deon and my child who had collapsed to hospital.”
Moyo added that the police officer who shot her sister later on filed a case against her sister.
She added that the police officers opened a case against Deon and an her other brother, Mernard, accusing them of trying to stop them from arresting Maxwell.
They are both out after being granted ZWL$6 000 bail and are expected in court on February 25.
Speaking to CITE, Deon said she was taken to Gweru Hospital for treatment and the doctors are yet to remove the bullet lodged on her right foot.
She added that she is in pain and has difficulty in walking.
Contacted for a comment, Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko said they were not aware of the incident and referred the publication to the national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
Nyathi said they would conduct further investigations into the matter.
“I would want to investigate because I did not get anything, we will investigate to find out what happened based on what you are saying,” he said.
