The BBC has been warned about potentially misleading the public if it airs an “overly sympathetic” documentary on gangster Chris Kaba featuring interviews with his distraught parents.
Critics fear firearms officer Sergeant Martyn Blake will effectively face a retrial in the programme, days after an Old Bailey jury cleared him of the 24-year-old’s murder in three hours.
Matt Cane, general secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said Londoners would be concerned about any broadcast that sought to “deify” Kaba.
An hour-long episode of Panorama, titled The Chris Kaba Shooting, is due to be shown on Monday, November 4 at 8pm.
BBC One says it has gained “exclusive access” to Kaba’s mother Helen Lumuanganu and father Prosper Kaba. It plans to investigate “what happened on the night of the fatal shooting”.
Mrs Lumuanganu will say: “No-one, nobody has the power to take someone’s life? No-one.”
Mr Kaba adds: “The police came and said that Chris was killed. All the whole world collapsed on me. How? How?”
On Friday, a Met spokesman said it had not contributed to the film.
Kaba’s relatives are set to deliver a letter to Downing Street on Saturday after marching with the United Families and Friends Campaign.
Father-to-be Kaba was shot through the windscreen of an Audi Q8 by Mr Blake as he tried to ram his way past police cars in Lambeth, south London on September 5, 2022.
When the officer was acquitted, it emerged drill rapper Kaba was a core member of the Brixton Hill-based 67 gang, one of London’s most dangerous.
The Audi was directly linked to three shootings in five months and Kaba would have stood trial for the attempted murder of a rival at Hackney’s Oval Space nightclub had he survived.
Mrs Lumuanganu unsuccessfully applied to judge Mr Justice Goss to keep a ban on revealing details of his background until after any future inquest.
But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, in a letter to the court, argued that “open and transparent public disclosure” of Kaba’s bad character would “significantly reduce the risk of unrest on the streets of London and keep the public safe”.
Publicity for the BBC’s new documentary reads: “Reporter Greg McKenzie speaks to insiders from the Met and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which provided evidence used to charge firearms officer Martyn Blake with murder.
“In the wake of the not guilty verdict, Panorama asks what next for the Kaba family, Martyn Blake, and the Metropolitan Police.”
Mr Cane, who represents the force’s rank-and-file officers, told the Standard: “The BBC would be unwise to broadcast something about Chris Kaba that is overly sympathetic.
“I think the whole community of London would be concerned about any programme that didn’t fully take into account Mr Kaba’s background and sought to deify him.
“You can’t look at the shooting by NX121 [the cypher Mr Blake was known as when charged] in isolation. There’s all this nonsense about Mr Kaba being ‘assassinated’ by a cop. The reality is he was a serious gang member who had a proven history of carrying firearms.
“It must also be remembered Mr Kaba’s family made an application for his bad character to remain secret.”
Mr Cane is supporting Mr Blake and his family and said being a police marksman or woman is one of the “world’s toughest jobs”.
Officers are aware of the responsibility and accountability it brings, he says, but added the sergeant should never have stood trial let alone be subjected to a TV retrial.
A BBC spokesman said: “All of our programmes are produced in accordance with the BBC’s editorial guidelines - this includes a commitment to impartiality and hearing a range of perspectives.
“We encourage people to watch the documentary in full and to make up their own minds.”
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More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Old Bailey with Kaba’s family after the conclusion of Mr Blake’s trial, claiming it was a failure “for all those affected by police violence”.
In a statement issued by campaign group Inquest, Kaba’s loved ones said they would “continue fighting for Chris, for justice, and for real change”.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, told the Commons on Thursday: “The fatal shooting of Chris Kaba caused pain to his family and considerable fear and anger, not only in my community but across London, and this House must understand that the concerns being raised are not anti-police but pro-accountability.”
Florence Eshalomi, the Vauxhall and Camberwell Green Labour MP, added: “No matter what we think about an individual, we have to remember that for any parent to bury their child is really tragic and when I met Prosper and Helen, the pain in their eyes in what had happened will not leave me.”
The row came as X, formerly Twitter, added a “context note” to an online BBC article that claimed black communities were “really traumatised” by the not guilty verdict, pointing out it was the view of Anthony King, a single youth worker in Croydon.
Former Downing Street adviser Samuel Kasumu, the ex-Tory London mayoral hopeful, said: “The majority of black people are not ‘traumatised’ by this case.
“The majority of black people would have stopped and complied with the police officers. The majority of black people are law-abiding citizens.”
In September, Emma Webber, the mother of one of triple killer Valdo Calocane’s victims, described a Panorama episode about the Nottingham attacks as “shameful, cold, ill-judged” when it featured members of his family.
