The heartbroken mother of Chris Kaba has demanded answers from a police watchdog six months after an armed Metropolitan Police officer shot dead her unarmed son.
Mr Kaba, 24, was shot once in the head, suffering catastrophic injuries after his car was boxed in by pursuing officers in Streatham Hill.
The Metropolitan Police officer known only by the codename NX121- involved was suspended and interviewed under caution after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched a homicide investigation.
The unarmed rapper’s distraught family viewed body-worn footage captured by officers in two police cars who chased and hemmed in his Audi Q8 late at night on September 5 last year.
Lawyers representing the family have on Friday called for an “urgent decision” on whether the officers involved will face murder, manslaughter, or other charges.
They also claim that despite promises updates from the IOPC to the family have “not been sufficiently frequent or meaningful” six months on from the killing.
Helen Lumuanganu, the mother of Chris Kaba, said: “We have waited for six months already for the decision. We don’t want to wait for another six months. This, for us, is a painful reminder of something that will never change.
“Enough is enough.”
In a joint statement, the family of Chris Kaba urged the IOPC to take immediate action to progress advice on criminal charges, and the Crown Prosecution Service to act “without any further delay”.
They added: “For the past six months our primary questions as a family have been: why did this happen and who will be held accountable?
“We were told that we would have to wait six to nine months before these questions could begin to be answered. For a grieving family, already that was too long. We are still waiting.
“The police watchdog have had enough time to gather evidence and take steps towards seeking CPS advice on criminal charges for those involved in Chris’ death. Yet we are still waiting.
“We must never accept a young unarmed Black man being shot by police on the streets of London as normal. This should never have happened. It must never happen again.
“Chris was so loved by our family and all his friends. He had a bright future ahead of him before his life was cut short. Alongside the community of supporters standing with us, our family cannot wait any longer.”
INQUEST - a charity providing expertise on state-related deaths - claimed that families of Black people who have died following police contact were unable to get accountability for racism from a system that is not “fit for purpose”
Lucy McKay, a spokesperson for INQUEST, said: “There has rightly been significant public concern about the circumstances of Chris Kaba’s death. This is both in relation to his death specifically and as part of the broader unacceptable pattern of disproportionate fatal use of force by police against Black men.”
Daniel Machover of Hickman & Rose, who represent the family, said: “If a member of the public is killed by another member of the public who is known to the police on the day of the death, it would rightly be considered outrageous for the bereaved family to be waiting for more than five months for the criminal investigation to be completed.
“The IOPC is failing this family and the wider public by failing to complete its criminal investigation promptly.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has said its investigation into Mr Kaba’s death will be “complex” and take six to nine months to complete as a “significant amount of evidence” is examined.
It has also disclosed that the shooting occurred as police “attempted to stop and contain” the Audi that Mr Kaba was driving and that the pursuit was prompted after the vehicle, which was not registered to Mr Kaba, was linked by automatic numberplate technology to a firearms incident in previous days.
Few other details have been officially disclosed, although the prospect of any criminal charge against the officer who fired the fatal shot is likely to depend on whether the Crown Prosecution Service decides that they were acting in self-defence in response to a realistic threat to their life or that of another officer.
