Officer who shot Chris Kaba did nothing wrong - colleague

Aurelia Foster
BBC News

A firearms officer cleared of murdering Chris Kaba should never have been put on trial, a former colleague has told the BBC's Today programme.

Metropolitan Police officer Martyn Blake, 40, shot Mr Kaba - who was not carrying a gun - during a vehicle stop in Streatham, south London, on 5 September 2022.

The unnamed colleague, who was at the scene immediately after the shots were fired, said: "At no point was there any evidence that Martyn Blake had done anything wrong or at least deviated from his training, or indeed the law."

The Crown Prosecution Service has defended its decision to bring Mr Blake to trial.

It can now be reported that Mr Kaba, 24, was in one of London's most dangerous gangs and would have faced trial accused of shooting a rival in an east London nightclub had he not been killed himself days later.

Neither Mr Kaba's gang history nor his criminal record was revealed during the trial after a senior judge ruled this had no bearing on the issues for jurors to decide upon.

Allegations that Mr Kaba was directly linked to two shooting incidents in the days before his death in Kirkstall Gardens can be reported after Mr Justice Goss lifted a ban on reporting them.

About 150 people gathered for a vigil outside the Old Bailey on Monday after jurors returned their verdict.

Mr Kaba's cousin Sheeda Queen said the family was "devastated" by the outcome of the trial.

"The acquittal of Martyn Blake isn't just a failure for our family but for all those affected by police violence," she said. "Despite the verdict, we won't be silenced."

The Crown Prosecution Service said the decision to prosecute had been made "after an in-depth consideration of all the available evidence".

Reacting to the verdict, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's official spokesman said on Tuesday that firearms officers deserve "the public's gratitude for their bravery".

"It is obviously crucial that the police have the ability to use their powers with legal certainty and clarity, all in balance with the public's need to see accountability," the spokesman said.

'Fearsome thing'

Mr Blake's former colleague, who was part of the Met Police 's MO19 specialist firearms command, said he had administered first aid at the scene and been involved in procedures that followed the shooting.

He told the BBC he believed a system similar to an Army court martial would be more appropriate for such cases.

"Martyn is the most professional, assiduous, diligent police officer you will come across and he should never have been put in this position," he said.

"He was on Kirkstall Gardens that night on behalf of the state.

"The state put Martyn Blake there that night and the state trained him to do the fearsome thing that he had to do, and he should never have been named in the media."

He added: "At no point was there any evidence that Martyn Blake had done anything wrong or at least deviated from his training, or indeed the law."

Mr Kaba had been followed and stopped by police because the car he was driving had been linked to a previous shooting in Brixton.

After being boxed in by police cars, he drove his vehicle backwards and forwards as he tried to ram his way free.

Mr Blake told the trial that he had believed one of his colleagues would be killed and he opened fire to stop the car.

Mr Kaba died from a single gunshot wound to the forehead.

Mr Blake's colleague said police officers were not above the law but incidents like these should not be dealt with by juries in criminal courts.

He said: "I think it's important they are viewed as fully accountable to the law and in front of the public. However, there is a problem when police officers are scrutinised by people who don't necessarily understand the pressures and the issues involved.

"I do wonder if there is something more akin to the court-martial system that we see in the military that would be a better fit for incidents like this, where we have a panel of legal experts, a panel of subject matter experts, that we can call on."

He said that while Mr Kaba had been found not to have had a gun, the Audi he was driving could have presented a "lethal threat" to the officers involved.

Describing the jury's verdict as the "right decision", he said: "There was no visible or audible glee by anyone I saw in the courtroom, anyone connected to policing or connected to Martyn.

"There was just an acceptance that the right thing had happened and the right outcome had been achieved. There are no winners in this situation and there were no winners in the courtroom yesterday."

The Metropolitan Police Federation said Mr Blake "should never have stood trial" and it was "astonished that a brave colleague could be charged with murder, doing the job that society expects of him".

"The ramifications of this case remain widespread; police officers should not have their livelihoods, and their liberty, put at risk for performing what unequivocally, in this case, was his lawful and appropriate function," Matt Cane, its general secretary, said.

'Balance to be struck'

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told BBC Breakfast that the "due process of the law" had taken place and this should be "respected".

But she acknowledged the trial had thrown up issues of trust between black communities and the police.

"The job that firearms officers do is very, very difficult and we do ask those officers and others in national security roles to take the most difficult decisions to keep all of us safe," she said.

"We do have to think about how we build confidence in the policing community about their ability to get on with the job that we all need them to do, but also among our communities as well... there is clearly a balance to be struck."

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Lord Macdonald, who served as director of public prosecutions from 2003-2008, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that investigators should have taken into account the officer's "fear, the danger he himself is in, the sensitivity of his position, the fact that he has to make a split-second decision" in deciding whether a prosecution was warranted.

"I would be surprised if they weren’t taken into account in this case," he said.

He added that he did not believe the threshold for prosecuting firearms officers should be raised.

Conservative Party leadership contender Robert Jenrick described Mr Blake as a "hero" who had found himself "fearing for his life".

He posted on X, formerly Twitter: "His prosecution was wrong and endangered the public. The ordeal he has gone through, unthinkable.

"We must back our brave police officers, and not drag them through the courts for making split-second decisions."

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