Jury retires in trial of Met firearms officer accused of murdering Chris Kaba

Prosecutors have alleged the shooting was not ‘not necessary’, but the firearms officer claims he feared for his life

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Metropolitan Police marksman accused of murdering Chris Kaba in a police shooting.

The prosecution allege that it was “not necessary” for firearms officer Martyn Blake to fire his gun after police had boxed in the 24-year-old driver.

They also claimed the police officer’s account of the shooting was “false” in some parts and “exaggerated” in others, the trial heard.

Mr Blake, 40, denies murdering Mr Kaba during a police stop in Streatham, south London, on 5 September 2022.

He insists he feared for his life and his fellow officer’s safety after Mr Kaba rammed a police car and reversed into one behind as he tried to flee the armed police stop.

Chris Kaba, 24, died in London in 2022 (PA Media)

The Old Bailey has heard how unarmed Mr Kaba knew the police were following him, and when surrounded by armed response vehicles had tried to smash and ram his way out.

However, prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury the Audi Q8 was being driven at speeds of 8mph and a maximum of 12mph when the driver struck the vehicles which were boxing him in.

Opening the murder trial earlier this month, he told the jury there is “unassailable evidence” which reveals the shooting was “not reasonably justified or justifiable”.

He later added: “It will be a matter for you to consider but in a number of material respects that account is false, we say, in parts and exaggerated in other parts.”

Last week, defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC told jurors that Blake was not a “RoboCop with total vision and nanosecond reactions like a computer” and perceived danger in the moment could not be captured in a “freeze frame”.

A computer-generated image showing the position of Martyn Blake (yellow figure) and a colleague (orange figure) standing in front of an Audi when Chris Kaba was shot (CPS/PA) (PA Media)

He said: “If the way he saw the world was like the internal screen of RoboCop, able to respond just like that to everything, then maybe you would be right as the split second of the shot would be like the split second on screen.

“But he isn’t, it he? None of us is. He is not a robot, he is a human being with a human brain who did this to the best of his ability.”

The enforced stop with extraction the officers had been ordered to carry out was designed to be “totally controlled” but “immediately became chaotic” and “potentially very dangerous”, Mr Gibbs said.

The trial continues.