A Coroner’s Court has heard the sequence of events which lead up to the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba on Monday 5th September.
The court heard how Mr Kaba was driving an Audi motor vehicle in South London.
The Audi Mr Kaba was driving was believed to be linked to a firearms incident the previous day, and an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) marker had been placed upon it.
A briefing was provided to officers before their shift on 5 September. The Audi was brought to their attention as potentially associated with the firearms incident the previous day.
Mr Kaba’s name was not included in this briefing.
According to police logs and accounts received to date by investigating officers, the Audi was recognised by officers parked at the side of the A202 in Camberwell Green in an unmarked armed response vehicle (ARV).
The officers followed the vehicle and circulated this via police airwaves at around 9.52 pm.
Officers continued to follow the Audi until 10.07 pm.
The officers did not activate their lights or sirens while following the vehicle. The intention was to use an ‘enforced stop extraction’ on the Audi.
At around 10.07 pm, Mr Kaba turned left from New Park Road onto Kirkstall Gardens.
Already present in Kirkstall Gardens was a marked police armed response vehicle.
The marked ARV had parked on Kirkstall Gardens, intending to join the other police vehicles behind the Audi once it had passed the junction.
One of the officers inside the marked ARV was ‘NX121.’
Once Mr Kaba made the left turn, the decision was taken to perform an ‘inline extraction’.
Armed officers exited their vehicles and approached the Audi.
The evidence suggests that contact was made between the Audi driven by Mr Kaba and the police vehicles. No further details have been released by the IOPC regarding what this contact consisted of or how the contact occurred.
The statement added that evidence further suggests that officer NX121 was standing in front of Mr Kaba’s vehicle. A single shot was fired by officer NX121 piercing the front windscreen of the vehicle Mr Kaba was driving and struck him.
Officers at the scene provided first aid to Mr Kaba before he was taken to King’s College Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12.16 am on Tuesday, 6 September 2022.
The statement ends.
On 22nd September, Kaba’s family met with Met police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, and the IOPC director general, Michael Lockwood, where investigators showed them bodycam footage of what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Following the meeting, Kaba’s mother, Helen Nakama, said: “It was hard … very hard.
“As I’ve said before, my heart is already broken. What I want is justice for my son and I want the truth.”
Jefferson Bosela, Kaba’s cousin who was also at the meeting and who is acting as a spokesperson for the family, said: “It was hard, but the family just wants justice. For now, the family are going to take a break and take a step back.”
The officer who discharged their firearm – NX121 – has been notified they are under criminal investigation for the offence of the murder of Mr Kaba.
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