LONDON – A Black motorist killed by a London police marksman who was acquitted of murder this week was a member of a violent gang and allegedly shot a rival a week earlier, according to court records that were allowed to be published Tuesday.
Jurors were not told about Chris Kaba’s gang ties during the trial that ended with Sgt. Martyn Blake being found not guilty Monday in the Central Criminal Court.
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Kaba, 24, was shot on Sept. 5, 2022, after ramming police vehicles during a traffic stop. Police did not know who was driving the vehicle, but it was an Audi Q8 that had been used as a getaway car in an unsolved shooting a night earlier.
Blake fired a single round through the windshield of the Audi because he said he thought fellow officers’ lives were in danger. Kaba was found to be unarmed.
Prosecutors defended their decision to charge Blake in an exceptionally rare case against a British police officer for a death in the line of duty. They argued at trial that Blake misjudged the risk to his colleagues, exaggerated the threat after the shooting and aimed for Kaba’s head. Blake denied those assertions.
A judge had said the details of Kaba's criminal record and alleged involvement in other shootings were irrelevant for jurors to consider in determining whether Blake used unreasonable force. Justice James Goss ordered news media not to report any of those details.
Following the trial, the news media challenged Goss' order, and he lifted the restrictions on the information that had emerged during earlier proceedings.
The Metropolitan Police supported the release of the information to remove any “misleading impression” about Kaba's character in the hopes it could quell violence toward officers, particularly on Saturday when an annual demonstration is held in London by family members of people who have died in police custody.
“If the information in relation to Mr. Kaba’s character is shared with the public, those who would seek to provoke anti-police violence would gain less support and the overall likelihood of disorder and the risk to public safety would reduce,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said in a court statement.
Kaba’s mother, Helen Lumuanganu, had asked the court not to release the details until an inquest could be held into her son’s death, which could take years.
Dozens of demonstrators held a peaceful protest Monday night outside the Old Bailey courthouse where the trial was held, chanting for justice for Kaba.
“Despite this verdict, we won’t be silenced,” his family said in a statement. "We are deeply grateful to everyone who stood by us and fought for justice. We will continue fighting for Chris, for justice, and for real change. Chris’ life mattered, and nothing can take that away from us.”
Inquest, a justice advocacy group that released the statement Monday, said neither the family nor the charity were commenting after the release of the new information from court.
Evidence at previous trials indicated Kaba had shot a gang rival on the dance floor of a nightclub on Aug. 30 and then chased the victim outside and shot him again before fleeing. The victim, who was hit twice in the leg, survived.
The Audi he was driving on the night he was killed had been used to drive him to the club that night and was also linked to another shooting in May.
Kaba had convictions for fighting and possessing a knife and had served several stints behind bars, including a four-year sentence in 2017 for possessing an imitation firearm.
Kaba, who had been a rapper and was about to become a father, was also facing a possible court order aimed at curbing gang behavior at the time of his death.
Fatal shootings by police in the U.K. are rare. In the year to March 2023, officers in England and Wales who are authorized to carry a gun fired their weapons at people 10 times and killed three, according to official statistics.
The shooting renewed racism allegations against the Met police, also known as Scotland Yard, as it had been trying to restore confidence following a series of scandals and an independent review that found it mired in sexism, homophobia and institutional racism.
The decision to charge Blake created a backlash from some of his specially trained firearms colleagues who refused to carry their weapons in a show of solidarity. The Met was briefly forced to call on neighboring departments and the military for backup.
The union representing Met police officers applauded the decision to lift the reporting restrictions on Kaba's gang involvement and said Blake never should have faced trial.