Chris Kaba was not a suspect and was being followed by a police car without lights or sirens before he was shot dead by a firearms officer, an inquest into his death has been told.
The unarmed father-to-be was killed by a single shot to the head fired by an officer referred to only as NX121, in a residential road in Streatham on 5 September, Southwark coroner’s court heard on Tuesday morning.
In the aftermath of the incident, the Metropolitan police said Kaba had been shot “after a vehicle pursuit”. The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is investigating the shooting, made no mention of a chase in a summary of the incident read to the court.
The IOPC lead investigator, Dean Brown, confirmed the Audi that Kaba had been driving was “believed to be linked to a firearms incident which took place the previous day”.
He told the inquest the Audi was followed and that no lights or sirens were used. He also said Kaba was not a suspect.
Brown told the court: “A briefing was provided to officers prior to their shifts on 5 September in which the Audi was brought to their attention as being potentially associated with the firearm incident from the previous day. Mr Kaba’s name was not included in this briefing.”
Officers sent a police radio message at about 9.53pm that they were following the vehicle, the inquest heard. Brown said: “Officers continued to follow the Audi until 10.07pm. The officers did not activate their lights or sirens.”
Kaba made a left turn into Kirkstall Gardens in Streatham, where a marked police armed response vehicle was waiting occupied by officer NX121, Brown told the inquest.
He added: “Once Mr Kaba made the left turn the decision was taken to perform an inline extraction. Armed officers exited their vehicles and approached the Audi.
“The evidence suggests that contact was made between the Audi driven by Mr Kaba and the police vehicles.
“The evidence further suggests that officer NX121 was standing to the front of Mr Kaba’s vehicle. A single shot was fired by officer NX121 piercing the front windscreen of the vehicle Mr Kaba was driving.”
Brown added: “Officers at the scene provided first aid to Mr Kaba before he was taken to King’s College hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12.16am.”
The inquest heard that officer NX121, who has been suspended from duty, had been notified that they are under criminal investigation for the offence of the murder.
The senior coroner Andrew Harris asked if anyone had been charged with homicide. Dean replied: “Not at this time.”
He said the investigation was “extensive and ongoing” and was expected to take six to nine months to complete. He added: “The investigation is still eager to hear from anyone who has not made contact to date who witnessed the incident.”
Harris expressed his condolences to Kaba’s family who were sitting in the court, before adjourning the inquest to allow the IOPC to complete its investigation.
In a statement on behalf of the family, Kaba’s cousin Jefferson Bosela said: “The family is pleased that, in this statement, the IOPC made public some of its initial findings about what happened that night. Every new fact is a step towards justice for Chris.”
Outside the court, Bosela expressed alarm at the time it was taking to investigate the death. He also called for the officer who fired the fatal shot to be interviewed under caution.
Flanked by Kaba’s tearful parents, Bosela said: “Officers must be interviewed under caution immediately. We have been told that after nearly a month, neither the officer who killed Chris or any of the other officers involved have been interviewed under caution.”
Bosela, wearing a Justice for Chris Kaba T-shirt, also called on the Crown Prosecution Service to urgently make a charging decision.
He said: “This should not take months and months. The evidence they need to make that decision should be available within weeks. An urgent decision on criminal charges is critical for this family, and many others, to have faith in the system that is supposed to bring them justice.”
And he expressed frustration at the IOPC’s failure to update the family about the investigation.
Bosela said: “While we have had positive communications with the IOPC, at times our family has had to chase the IOPC for information or push them to do what they should be doing already. The best way for the family to have confidence in the process, is for the family to be kept closely informed at every stage.”
Bosela added: “We need answers. Not just this family, but the whole of London – the whole of the country – needs to know how something like this could occur? How can a young man, sitting in a car, unarmed, be shot in the head by police in London in 2022? This should never have happened. It must never happen again. We must never accept this as normal. Someone must be held accountable.”
He concluded: “We will not rest until the people responsible for Chris’s death are held fully accountable.”
