Police shot Chris Kaba fearing he would kill an officer

A police gunman shot Chris Kaba believing “one or more” officers might be killed as the suspect tried to escape “at all costs”, 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.

The Old Bailey heard that moments before Mr Kaba had tried to escape by driving forward and then reversing into a police car which had blocked him.

Police were searching for the Audi after its registration was linked to reports of gunfire in Brixton the night before, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors they wanted to consider the positions of the armed officers around the car and whether they were in danger at the time of the fatal shooting.

The court was shown body-worn videos of various officers and a graphic reconstruction of the “forced stop with trigger.”

After the shooting, Mr. Blake, 40, recounted the incident and said he opened fire because he feared there was an “imminent threat.”

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

He said: “At this point the driver drove his vehicle at high speed towards me and (unnamed officer) E156 in an attempt to escape.”

“I firmly believed that any of us could be killed and eliminated.

“The driver then rammed our car, which was behind me, and a parked car, leaving him trapped.”

“When I saw the car stopped, I went forward and challenged the driver again, saying something like, ‘Armed police, stop the vehicle.'”

Mr Blake added: “At this point the driver was reversing at great speed, as fast as he could, directly towards my colleagues who were walking towards the vehicle.”

“The man had already shown a propensity for violence and was happy to use any means to escape, and I strongly believed that one or more of my colleagues could be killed by the car and that the driver would not stop his car.” Try to escape at all costs.

“Then I decided to incapacitate the driver due to the impending danger to my colleagues and fired a shot at the driver.”

“He immediately collapsed and the car stopped.”

Mr Little pointed out that parts of Mr Blake’s original report were “exaggerated” and “incorrect” and that the Metropolitan Police officer’s use of deadly force could not be justified.

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

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

The court heard a firearms incident commander (OFC) feared the longer they waited, the more likely the driver was to realize he was being followed.

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

Another 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, Mr Blake said that on previous shifts the defendant had acted for him as a tactical firearms advisor in the operations room.

HA62 said that Mr Blake was “calm and collected” and that his judgment was “good” and that he had never experienced being angry, frustrated or annoyed while on duty.

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

Mr Gibbs asked HA62 whether if a car is not immobilized immediately, “the longer it runs, the greater the risk to officers near the car.”

To which the officer replied, “Yes.”

Mr. Kaba initially backed up, then accelerated forward in an unsuccessful attempt to escape, crashing into two police vehicles and a parked car.

The police car behind the Audi responded by driving forward to close the gap before Mr Kaba reversed, jurors were told.

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

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

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

The process continues.