The split-second decision that condemned officer who shot Chris Kaba to murder trial

On the evening of Sunday, Sept 5 2022, Chris Kaba, a 24-year-old black man, was driving alone through the streets of south London.

As he travelled through the Camberwell area, his black Audi Q8 was spotted by a police firearms officer, who recognised it as a vehicle that had been flagged as suspicious.

According to the police intelligence database, the car, which was not registered to Kaba, had been involved in a firearms incident the previous evening.

A witness reported having seen three balaclava-clad men, one armed with a gun, open fire on another vehicle near a primary school in Brixton before the suspects fled the scene in two cars.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, but the description of one of the getaway vehicles – a dark-coloured Audi Q8 along with the number plate – was passed to Scotland Yard.

While the police had no idea who was behind the wheel at that stage, a firearms incident was declared.

A convoy of unmarked armed response vehicles (ARVs) began tracking the Audi as it continued its route across south London, travelling through Herne Hill, Brockwell Park and Brixton.

Meanwhile, a marked BMW ARV containing three officers, including Martyn Blake, remained on standby parked in Kirkstall Gardens, a residential street in Streatham.

Firearms officers were preparing to stop the car and apprehend the driver when Kaba unexpectedly turned into Kirkstall Gardens to be confronted by the marked BMW ARV, which had moved into the middle of the road blocking his path.

Kaba quickly reversed but discovered he was boxed in from behind by an unmarked police car, which he collided with.

Within seconds, armed police were swarming around the Audi, pointing their guns and telling the driver to surrender.

They ordered him out of the car. When he refused they tried to smash the windows.

But determined to get away, Kaba floored the accelerator, lurching forward and ploughing into the BMW police car and a Tesla parked in the street.

Unable to get through the gap, Kaba slammed the car into reverse – but again collided with a police Volvo, which had moved forward to close the gap.

It was at that point Mr Blake discharged his carbine, firing a single bullet that pierced the windscreen of the Audi and struck Kaba in the head.

Kaba was rushed to King’s College Hospital but was pronounced dead just after midnight.

No firearm was recovered from the Audi and, as is the case in any police shooting, there was an automatic referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Within hours of his death there was an angry reaction from Kaba’s family and friends, who claimed he would not have been shot if he had been white.

In an emotional statement, they described him as an expectant father and aspiring architect with “so much potential”.

Despite having had problems in the past, Kaba’s family insisted he had been trying to turn his life around and had been looking forward to becoming a father.

Mr Blake, the 40-year-old officer who fired the single shot, was unaware who was at the wheel, but insisted he acted in line with his training and because he genuinely feared for his life or the lives of his colleagues.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Mr Blake – who was known at that stage only as NX121 – was removed from front-line operations as he completed the post-incident procedures.

On Sept 9, the IOPC announced it had launched a homicide investigation.

Three days later, on Sir Mark Rowley’s first day as the new Met Commissioner, he bowed to pressure and agreed to suspend NX121, citing the need to maintain “public confidence”.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, described the suspension as “a really important decision” that he fully supported.

But sources close to the officer said that decision came as a huge “kick in the teeth” and left him feeling that the force did not have his back.

In the days that followed, dozens of his colleagues in the Met’s firearms unit threatened to hand in their weapons in protest and Sir Mark had to hold an emergency meeting to avert a crisis.

The focus on the Queen’s funeral, which was due to take place the following week, helped take the heat out of the situation and most firearms officers went back to work.

But just over a year later on, Sept 23 2023, came the news that following an IOPC investigation and lengthy consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service , the decision had been made to charge NX121 with murder.

The officer appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and then the Old Bailey while tearful members of Kaba’s family packed into the public gallery.

It was only the second time in the last 30 years that a firearms officer in the UK had been charged with murder over a shooting carried out in the line of duty.

Tony Long shot dead gangster Azelle Rodney in 2005 and went on trial accused of his murder 10 years later in 2015.

But he was acquitted by a jury and later said: “It has been very difficult facing trial for something that happened 10 years ago when I had acted to protect the lives of others as a part of my job and based on my training and experience.

“Police firearms officers do not go out intending to shoot people and, like me in this case, have to make split-second life-or-death decisions based on the information available to them at the time.”

The fallout from the decision to charge Mr Blake was almost immediate. More than 300 firearms officers, representing 10 per cent of the Met’s armed capability, laid down their arms.

Firearms officers in the UK are all volunteers who do not get any extra money for the risks they take, and many decided it was simply no longer worth it.

The situation plunged the Met into a crisis and the Army had to be placed on standby to ensure there was enough armed cover across London.

Frantic negotiations eventually calmed the situation down but sources said morale among armed officers in the Met was at rock bottom.

In February, The Telegraph revealed that only six officers had applied to join the current intake.