The family of Chris Kaba, a 24-year-old man who was shot dead by the Metropolitan police in south London have said that they only found out about his death 11 hours after it had happened.
Jefferson Bosela, Kaba’s cousin and a spokesperson for the family, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said: “The family found out 11 hours [after he died], so his mum would have woken up and have gone to work not knowing that her son wasn’t alive any more.”
On Friday, the police watchdog the IOPC, launched a homicide investigation into the shooting on 5 September of the unarmed Kaba by armed Met officers. Kaba was killed by a single shot while driving a car that was first rammed before being boxed in by police.
The IOPC also confirmed that no gun was found in the vehicle Kaba was driving, and that it had emerged that Kaba did not own the car, which was flagged as being linked to a firearms incident days earlier.
Hundreds of people marched on parliament in central London on Saturday demanding justice for Kaba. Members of Kaba’s family were joined by supporters as well as the rapper Stormzy and several MPs including Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Diane Abbott.
On Monday, the Met officer who fatally shot Kaba was suspended from frontline duties by the force, days after two London MPs and Kaba’s family called for the officer to be disciplined.
Bosela said the family welcomed the Met’s decision to suspend the officer, but added that the IOPC had been too slow to act in other areas.
“I think the second an investigation was opened he should have been suspended from there,” Bosela said. “You know, it’s the fact that the IOPC are moving a bit too slow. First we wanted a criminal investigation opened and that took three to four days, and then we wanted the officer suspended and that took another two days. So it seems that there is no urgency in their dealings in this tragic matter.”
Bosela added: “[The IOPC] have been extremely vague throughout the whole investigation, in terms of just very simple details … and when it comes to them explaining how long the investigation will take they’ve been just as vague. They’re not really being helpful and I think that has definitely caused a lot of upset not just for the family, but for the local community as well.”
It was also stressed that Kaba’s family had many unanswered questions about his death, including whether the car had been searched initially during the incident.
“But the question we’re asking now is: were they following the car, or were they following Chris?” Bosela said. “Because what [the IOPC] are saying is that the car was flagged in the ANPR system, but now we know that the car was not registered in Chris’s name. So that means that it could have been anyone in that car, and we need to know the difference between whether they were following Chris or the suspected owner of the car.”
Bosela added: “The matter is whether Chris was unlawfully killed by a police offer. No evidence that the car was linked to firearms because I’ve heard of people who have been stopped by the police and their vehicles were linked to firearms and they came out alive. So the question is: what went on in that night that led up to him being killed?”
• This article was amended on 15 September 2022 to make clear that it was the Met police and not the IOPC that suspended the officer who fatally shot Kaba.
