Met firearms officer may have been ‘angry, frustrated and annoyed’ when he shot dead Chris Kaba, jury told
A Metropolitan Police firearms officer may have been “angry, frustrated and annoyed” when he shot Chris Kaba in the head through the windscreen of a car, a court heard.
The Old Bailey heard it was “not necessary” for operational firearms commander Martyn Blake to fire his gun after police had boxed in the 24-year-old driver.
Blake, 40, denies murdering Mr Kaba during a police stop in Streatham, south London, on 5 September 2022.
Opening the murder trial on Wednesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury there is “unassailable evidence” which reveals the shooting was “not reasonably justified or justifiable”.
“For a firearms officer to shoot and kill it should, understandably, be a remedy of last resort,” he told the court.
“The body worn footage… and footage from cameras on police vehicles… reveals, we say, that it was not necessary to shoot.
“The immediate risk to both the defendant and his fellow officers at the scene did not, we say, justify at the point when the trigger was pulled – it didn’t justify firing a bullet into the vehicle that Chris Kaba was driving.”
The jury heard Blake did not know who Mr Kaba was when he shot him as members were urged to consider whether he was “angry, frustrated and annoyed” at the driver’s failure to obey his commands for him to stop his car.
In a reconstruction played to the court, jurors were told that Mr Kaba had tried to evade a police car blocking his path in front – hitting it and a parked car nearby – before reversing into a police vehicle blocking him at the rear.
However the Audi Q8 was stationary when he was shot with his hands on the steering wheel, the court heard.
“We say that on careful analysis of all of the evidence nothing Chris Kaba did in the seconds before he was shot justified this defendant’s decision to shoot,” Mr Little told the jury.
He later added: “Ultimately, we say, on the evidence there was no real or immediate threat to life of anybody present at the scene and, in particular, at the all-important point in time when the defendant fired the fatal shot.”
Blake, who was formerly referred to as officer NX121, denies murder.
The trial, scheduled to last for three weeks, continues.
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