The shooting of Chris Kaba by a Met Police firearms officer was “not reasonably justified or justifiable” as there was no imminent risk to the officers present, the Old Bailey heard.
Tom Little KC opened the prosecution against Martyn Blake, 40, who fired the fatal shot into Kaba’s head after an armed convoy attempted to stop his vehicle.
Blake is on trial at the Old Bailey for murder for the shooting of Kaba in the head through the front windscreen of an Audi on September 5, 2022. He denies the charge.
Little said that the vehicle that Kaba was in at the time of the shooting was not moving towards the defendant or any other officers, but instead had “just reversed a short distance backwards striking the front of a police vehicle that was blocking it in.”
Kaba was shot while sitting in an Audi Q8 after being followed by both marked and unmarked police vehicles.
Noting that Kaba had tried to escape the stop by the Met’s firearms officers, Little said “nothing Chris Kaba did in the seconds before he was shot justified this defendant’s decision to shoot.”
The prosecuting barrister said that the “real issue” in this case is whether this was a case of “mistaken belief as to risk” or, as the prosecution allege,” an unlawful decision to kill.”
The court was then shown some footage of a recreation of the incident.
In 2D cartoons of the incident on Kirkstall Gardens, showing Kaba’s Audi being tailed by an unmarked police car and two marked police cars, all of which were Armed Response Vehicles.
The defendant was in a vehicle ahead of the Audi, positioned to block off Kaba’s Audi.
The cartoon recreation shows that Kaba’s Audi made a “concerted attempt” to get through, with the wheels spinning, but Blake’s car blocked his path.
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Helen Lumuanganu (left), the mother of Chris Kaba, arriving at the Old Bailey
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An unmarked vehicle then came forward, penning in Kaba’s Audi.
At this stage, Kaba’s car reversed in and made contact with the unmarked car.
The recreation then showed the various firearms officers that exited their vehicles after Kaba’s vehicle came to a halt in the south London residential street.
Little said: “There is no imminent risk to those individuals. They have moved to the side.”
At the point when the shot was fired, Little paused the footage and said: “There is no police officer anywhere near to the vehicle at that stage and there was no immediate risk to any of the lives to any of the officers to the side or back of the vehicle.
“That is what the defendant said was his primary concern, not that the vehicle was going to come forwards towards him, but it was his fellow officers to the side and behind the vehicle at risk.”
Members of campaign group Justice For Chris Kaba give a statement outside the Old Bailey
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The court was then shown footage of the incident taken from the front of one of the armed response vehicles, which did not have any audio.
Little said: “The two officers in front of the foxtrot [lead] vehicle are not close to the Audi.”
The footage showed the windows of the Audi being smashed by one of the firearms officers as it accelerated towards the lead vehicle.
But the prosecuting barrister said that the footage showed that none of the officers were at risk at the point of the shot being fired, after Kaba reversed the vehicle.
“There was, we say, no real or immediate threat to the life of anybody present at the scene, and at the all-important point in time when the defendant fired that fatal shot.”
Little said the defendant discharged his firearm when Kaba’s vehicle was stationary and no officers were behind it, with the prospect of him being able to escape was “far from obvious.”
