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Credit: CPS
The man shot dead by police in south London two years ago was a violent, armed gangster who gunned down a rival in a packed nightclub just days before he was killed, it can now be disclosed.
Despite his family claiming that convicted criminal Chris Kaba was trying to turn his life around, the 24-year-old remained a key player in one of London’s most feared and dangerous gangs.
In the early hours of Aug 30 2022 – just six days before he died – Kaba and three of his gang associates smuggled a handgun into a Notting Hill Carnival afterparty in the Oval Space nightclub in Cambridge Heath, Hackney.
After spotting a rival on the packed dance floor, Kaba coolly raised the gun and fired, hitting his 23-year-old target in the leg.
CCTV footage from inside the club captured the terrifying moment.
Miraculously nobody else was hurt but panicked partygoers were sent running for their lives.
Kaba was not finished, however, and as his injured target tried to escape he chased him from the nightclub into the street and shot him again as he lay on the ground.
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Credit: CPS
He and fellow gang members then left the scene in two cars – one of which was the Audi he was driving the following Sunday evening when he was shot dead by police.
The victim was rushed to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where he was put under armed guard and treated for gunshot wounds to both legs.
He refused to cooperate with the police and later discharged himself from hospital against medical advice.
In February this year, three men, Shemiah Bell, Marcus Pottinger and Connell Bamgboye were convicted over their role in the attack.
At their trial, prosecutors said if he had still been alive Kaba would have stood trial for attempted murder.
Far from laying low after the incident, however, Kaba’s armed activities continued the following week.
On Saturday Sept 4 – just 24 hours before he was shot dead by police – Kaba and his gang are suspected of carrying out a gun attack outside a primary school in Brixton.
Members of the public reported seeing three masked and hooded men opening fire with a shotgun on a white Mercedes containing two people.
The suspects were then spotted changing their clothes and getting into two getaway cars, one of which was the Audi Q8 driven by Kaba when he was shot.
While the identity of the gunman was never confirmed, following Kaba’s death his clothes were examined and gunshot residue was found on his sleeve. A Balaclava was also recovered from the scene.
The Audi, which was not officially registered to Kaba, was also linked to a shooting in Bromley around five months earlier in May 2022.
In that case two, people suffered gunshot wounds after being fired upon by unidentified assailants.
Kaba’s criminal record dated back to the age of 13, but by his late teens he had graduated from petty crime to serious violence with convictions for stabbings and grievous bodily harm.
In 2017, while still a teenager, he was charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence after shots were fired in the Canning Town area of east London.
He appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2019 where he was found guilty of possessing an imitation firearm.
Kaba was sentenced to four years in a Young Offenders Institute but was released on licence in 2020.
Not long after his release, he was returned to jail after a knife was discovered in his car when he was stopped by police for driving without insurance.
He received an extra five months in custody because the offences were committed while he was still on licence.
At the time of his death, Kaba was an expectant father, but court records reveal how in April 2022 he was served with a 28-day domestic violence protection order relating to the mother of his unborn child.
The order barred him from contacting her on social media or entering the street where she lived.
His family claimed that following his spell in prison he had been working hard to make a fresh start with aspirations of becoming an architect.
But in reality, Kaba was one of the leading figures in Brixton’s Hill’s notorious 67 gang, an organised criminal network and drill rap collective.
The 50 or so gang members controlled the lucrative drug trade in the area, using firearms and knives to terrorise their rivals and protect their business and territory.
In 2019, a member of 67 was convicted of a gangland murder, and there have also been numerous stabbings and shootings linked to its members.
In 2021, an associate of Kaba was stabbed to death and in May 2022 two people were shot by members of 67 in a robbery.
The 67 gang was also active on the drill rap scene and was even nominated as the Best Newcomer in the 2016 Music of Black Origin awards.
Kaba, who went by the name Itch, appeared in several videos produced by the outfit.
According to the Metropolitan Police, far from being focused on music, 67 was the highest-harm criminal gang in London.
In 2019, the police disrupted a county lines drug dealing operation, which resulted in 16 people, including key figures from 67, being jailed for a total of 61 years.
At the time of his death, Kaba was the subject of an interim gang injunction, aimed at preventing him from engaging in organised criminal activity.
The Metropolitan Police were about to apply for the injunction to be made permanent and a hearing had been listed for ten days after he was shot dead.
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Credit: Independent Office for Police Conduct
Before Martyn Blake, the officer who shot Kaba stood trial, police said they had intelligence that there was a credible threat to his life from members of 67.
An assessment sent to the court by one senior officer read: “In nearly 30 years of service I have never been more concerned about the welfare of an officer or the risk to them and their family to come to harm as I am about the officer in this case.
He went on: “There is specific intelligence which indicates the risk to the officer’s life and that members of the 67 gang actively seek or locate him as a result of the death of Mr Kaba.”
