An armed police officer claimed Chris Kaba used his car as a weapon in a bid “to escape at any cost” and that he shot him fearing “one or many of my colleagues could be killed,” a court has heard.
Jurors were shown dramatic body-worn camera footage of the moment Martyn Blake, 40, fatally shot the 24-year-old as he was sat in the driver’s seat of a dark Audi Q8 in Streatham, south London, on the night of 5 September 2022.
Six police vehicles and a helicopter were involved in an operation to stop the car because its registration had been linked to a shooting in Brixton the night before, the court has heard.
Blake, a Metropolitan Police marksman who was previously referred to as NX121, is on trial at the Old Bailey, where he denies Mr Kaba’s murder.
In an initial account on 6 September, Blake said he had his weapon in the aimed position and shouted “armed police show me your hands” before Mr Kaba “drove his vehicle at great speed toward” him and another armed officer in an attempt to escape.
“I had a genuine belief that either of us could be killed and moved right, out of the way,” he said.
Blake said the driver then rammed their car as well as a parked car, becoming wedged, before reversing back “at great speed as fast as he could, directly towards my colleagues who were out on foot approaching the vehicle”.
“The male had already shown a propensity to use violence and was happy to use any means to escape and I had a genuine held belief that one or many of my colleagues could be killed by the car, and that the driver would not stop his attempt to escape at any cost,” he said.
“I then made the decision to incapacitate the driver due to the imminent threat to my colleagues and took one aimed shot at the driver. He immediately slumped and the car stopped.”
But prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury: “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.”
He said the issue in the trial revolved around the 15 seconds or so after Mr Kaba turned into Kirkstall Gardens followed by an unmarked police car and two other marked vehicles.
Mr Kaba was on the phone to his friend Elisha Fizul, who invited him to her birthday party, just before the stop and told her he thought the police were behind him, the court heard.
Armed officers can be heard shouting “go, go, go” and “armed police, get out of the f***ing car,” as they surround the vehicle.
Mr Little said the Audi was stationary at the point Mr Kaba was shot less than a second later and shouts of “shots fired” and “where from?” can be heard.
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The Audi was travelling at 12mph when it accelerated forward, colliding with the two vehicles in front and 8mph when it reversed and hit the unmarked police car behind, the jury was told.
In a later account, Blake said Mr Kaba was using the car as a “battering ram or a weapon”, and he thought the driver of his vehicle was at “grave risk of serious injury by virtue of the ramming of our vehicle and could easily have been killed due to the ferocity of the impact of the Audi moving forward”.
He also said Mr Kaba “was oblivious to the danger he was causing to the lives of his colleagues and any further movement by this vehicle was likely to result in serious injury or death, to one or more of the officers around the vehicle as they continued to try and get the door open”, the court heard.
Prosecutors say Mr Kaba did nothing in the seconds before he was shot to justify Blake’s decision to pull the trigger, alleging he may have been “angry, frustrated and annoyed”.
Mr Little said: “We say that the use of force here was simply not necessary and that the explanation given for it is false and exaggerated.”
Patrick Gibbs KC, defending, said Blake completely denies any suggestion his client has deliberately got things wrong.
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Outlining the issues in the case to the jury, he said the Audi Mr Kaba was driving had been used by “armed hooded men in a shotgun attack in Brixton” the night before with the men and the weapon still at large.
He said Mr Kaba had tried to “ram his way out” and it was agreed Blake acted “properly and lawfully up until he pulled the trigger” and after.
Mr Gibbs said Blake had found himself in the role of firearms cover and the responsibility to decide whether to shoot “in that split second” fell on him, highlighting the “power and the noise of the Audi” as well as the “forces involved” when two two-tonne cars collide.
He asked jurors to consider “what did he honestly believe”, to consider carefully if there was any evidence of “anger or annoyance or frustration” and to “look at his trigger finger in the body-worn footage.”
Mr Gibbs added: “What was in Mr Kaba’s mind and what was he trying to achieve, and what was in Mr Blake’s mind and what was he trying to achieve at the time of this tragedy?”
The trial continues.
