Police shot Chris Kaba over fear he would kill an officer – court

A police marksman shot Chris Kaba dead believing “one or many” officers could be killed as the suspect attempted to escape at “any cost”, a court has heard.

Martyn Blake, who denies murder, shot the 24-year-old in the head through the windscreen of a car during a police stop in Streatham, south London, in September 2022.

Moments before, Mr Kaba had tried to get away by driving forward and then reversing into a police car that had blocked him in, the Old Bailey heard.

Police had been looking for the Audi after its registration was linked to reports of gunshots in Brixton the night before, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jurors they would want to consider the positions of the armed officers around the car and whether they were at risk at the time the fatal shot was fired.

The court was shown body-worn video from various officers and a graphic reconstruction of the “enforced stop with extraction”.

After the shooting, Mr Blake, 40, provided an account of the incident, saying he opened fire because he feared there was an “imminent threat”.

Recounting events, he said he had got out of his vehicle and moved towards the target, shouting: “Armed police, show me your hands.”

He said: “At this point the driver drove his vehicle at great speed toward myself and (unnamed officer) E156 to escape.

“I had a genuine belief that either of us could be killed and moved right, out of the way.

“The driver then rammed our car, which was behind me, as well as a parked car and stopped, wedged.

“Seeing the car was stopped I went round to the front and again challenged the driver, saying something like, ‘Armed police, stop the vehicle.'”

Mr Blake added: “At this point the driver reversed back at great speed as fast as he could, directly towards my colleagues who were out on foot approaching the vehicle.

“The male had already shown a propensity to use violence and was happy to use any means to escape and I had a genuine-held belief that one or many of my colleagues could be killed by the car, and that the driver would not stop his attempt to escape at any cost.

“I then made the decision to incapacitate the driver due to the imminent threat to my colleagues and took one shot at the driver.

“He immediately slumped and the car stopped.”

Mr Little suggested parts of Mr Blake’s initial account were “exaggerated” and “false”, and that the Metropolitan Police officer’s use of lethal force was not justifiable.

The court heard that officers in an unmarked parked police vehicle spotted the Audi Q in Camberwell, south London, and began following it.

Mr Blake, referred to as NX121, was the navigator in one of six vehicles that joined the police convoy before a decision was made to stop the Audi.

The court heard an operational firearms commander (OFC) had been concerned the longer they waited, the greater chance the driver would become aware he was being followed.

Mr Little said the OCF was right, as Mr Kaba had told a friend he was being followed in a phone call made shortly before the stop in Kirkstall Gardens where Blake and other armed officers got out of their vehicles.

A fellow firearms officer, identified only as HA62, told the court that he was the tactical firearms commander on the night of the shooting.

Under cross examination by Patrick Gibbs KC, for Mr Blake, he said that the defendant had acted as a tactical firearms adviser in the operations room for him on previous shifts.

HA62 said that Mr Blake was “calm and collected” and that his judgment was “sound”, and that he had never known him to become angry, frustrated or annoyed while on duty.

On the night Mr Kaba died, Blake had been rostered on to work in the operations room as a tactical adviser, but was swapped out with a colleague, the court heard.

Mr Gibbs asked HA62 whether when a car is not instantly immobilised “does the longer it go on the greater the risk to the officers around the car become?”

To which the officer replied: “Yes”.

Initially, Mr Kaba drove back then accelerated forwards in an unsuccessful attempt to get away, hitting two police vehicles and a parked car.

The police car behind the Audi responded by moving forwards to close the gap before Mr Kaba reversed into it, jurors were told.

Less than a second later, Mr Blake, who was standing in front of the Audi, opened fire and shot Mr Kaba with a SiG Sauer semi-automatic carbine through the windscreen.

Cries of “shots fired, shots fired” could be heard on the body-worn video.

Mr Kaba was treated by paramedics at the scene before he was taken to hospital where he died just after midnight on 6 September 2022.

The trial continues.