Chris Kaba, the 24-year-old shot dead by Met Police marksman Martyn Blake, was a member of the notorious Brixton Hill-based 67 collective.
They are considered one of London’s most dangerous street gangs and Kaba, according to police, was a core member.
This is a significant departure from how friends presented him at the time of his killing in 2022, where it was said that he was much-loved family man and father-to-be working in construction.
The ruthless 67 mob is said to have taken its name from the telephone code for their south London neighbourhood from which many associates hail.
Its arch rival was “17 gang” from the nearby Wandsworth Road area which took its name from the date 17-year-old Jordan Malutshi was fatally stabbed in a bar in the early hours of July 1, 2013 - 1/7.
Coincidentally, it was Jordan’s brother Brandon Malutshi, 25, who was shot in the legs at Oval Space nightclub by gangster Kaba six days before he was shot dead by armed officer Mr Blake in Streatham.
Kaba was trying to ram his way past police cars using an Audi Q8 when Mr Blake fired a single shot.
The Audi he was driving when he was killed had been linked to three previous gun incidents.
However, despite many Londoners believing it is right to hold Sergeant Blake to account, politicians are debating whether he should have been charged with murder and would that have happened if Kaba was a terrorist he killed in the line of duty?
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says his officers believe campaign groups can influence the legal backlash from the Crown Prosecution Service and Independent Office for Police Conduct in a way “that leads to something that’s unbalanced and lasts forever”.
Before Mr Blakes’s trial began in earnest, Mr Justice Goss sitting at the Old Bailey ruled that none of Kaba’s connection with gangs should be told to jurors.
Still, the jury took a little over three hours on Monday to clear Mr Blake. Before delivering its verdict, they sent a note to the judge asking for permission also to pass comment, which was denied.
Kaba had six criminal convictions but graduated from knife to gun crime as he got older. His first, aged 13, was for possession of a kitchen blade after a large fight. In June 2012, Kaba was handed a youth referral order.
In October of that year, he was convicted of wounding with intent and sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders’ Institution.
A burglary conviction for the “steaming” of a mobile phone shop in 2013 resulted in a youth rehabilitation order.
In August 2015, Kaba and three friends - including music producer Connel Bamgboye, now 30, were involved in a gang-motivated knife attack.
A well-known rival, who relentlessly taunted 67 in rap videos, was targeted in Carphone Warehouse on Streatham High Road.
The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and a broken arm. A knife, dog chain and belts were used during the daylight brawl, police said. Kaba was convicted of affray and given a one-year training and detention order.
Kaba was stabbed himself at his own 19th birthday party when rivals to the Brixton Hill gang launched an attack on unlicensed music event in Romford.
He survived knife wounds to the stomach, while Bamgboye and another person were shot as part of the bloody turf war. Kaba refused to co-operate with police attempting to find the perpetrators.
The year before he was killed, Kaba was released from custody after being sentenced to four years for possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He fired a sawn-off shotgun outside a party in Canning Town in the early hours of December 30, 2017. No one was hurt. He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2019.
In 2020, a conviction for possession of a knife and failing to stop for police led to a five-month suspended sentence.
As the Standard reported in September 2022, Kaba’s then pregnant fiancée, Karimah Waite, obtained a 28-day domestic violence protection order, barring him from contacting her on social media or entering her street in Battersea. Their daughter was born in the autumn.
Ms Waite’s mother Kim Alleyne said at the time of her future son-in-law: “He was so loved. He was so funny. He was super-kind.”
Dozens of protesters gathered outside court with Kaba’s family after Mr Blake was cleared.
His mother Helen Lumuanganu had applied for her son’s background to remain secret pending an inquest, although no date had been set.
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In a statement issued by campaign group Inquest, Kaba’s family said they would “continue fighting for Chris, for justice, and for real change”.
Defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC had said if Kaba had not been fatally shot by Mr Blake, he would have been tried in court for attempted murder.
Bamgboye - nicknamed “C-Rose” or “Conz”, whose passport was found in the Audi on the night Kaba was shot, was sentenced to five and half years in prison over the Brandon Malutshi shooting on August 30, 2022. Shemiah Bell, 32, got 10 years for wounding with intent and Marcus Pottinger, a nine year sentence.
Kaba had travelled to Hackney in the Audi but made his getaway in a Range Rover. The Audi was driven away by Bell who parked it outside his home for Kaba to pick up in the morning.
The first shotgun incident to which the Audi was linked was on May 22 in Bromley, south London.
It involved the same type of gun used in a shooting on September 4 and was still outstanding when Kaba was killed, the court heard in the absence of the jury.
Jurors were only told of the third shooting incident in which the Audi had been involved outside a primary school in Brixton the night before Mr Blake shot Kaba.
Three hooded figures had targeted two unidentified victims and made off in the Audi and another vehicle.
No suspects, shotgun or victims had been found at the time the Audi was spotted and followed on the fateful night.
Mr Gibbs suggested Kaba could have been one of the hooded attackers in the Brixton shooting.
After he was shot dead, police discovered a balaclava in his pocket and gunshot residue on his sleeve.
Tit-for-tat violence is the stock in trade for London’s gang scene and the 67 gang was the most violent one in the Lambeth area, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Gibbs had argued that Mr Blake was well aware of the escalating tension between Kaba’s 67 gang and its rivals before the police stop prompted by the identification of an Audi linked to a shooting incident in Brixton the night before.
On Mr Blake’s concerns at the time, he said: “This defendant, like all the other officers in the team, is familiar with these gangs, knows what they are, knows how dangerous they are, knows how often they shoot each other.
“It’s the most dangerous gang in south London, that’s what the context is. As it happens, he was completely right.”
A police report stated: “67 is an identifiable street gang that are in an active and violent dispute with a rival faction of street gangs in Lambeth.
“This dispute has encompassed numerous firearms discharges, stabbings and murders, the narrative for this dispute has played out in gang-related musical content since 2014.
“67 gang and those affiliated to the group are embedded in a culture of drug supply, serious violence, firearms and knife possession.”
The author of the report concluded: “It is my firm belief 67 have been and remain the highest harm street gang in Lambeth and that they continue to present serious risk to harm to those individuals and groups they are in opposition with or have had issues with.”
The report dated June 16, 2023 was presented at a hearing to decide whether Mr Blake should be tried anonymously under his cypher NX121 because of the threat of gang reprisals over Kaba’s death.
The author drew on experiences since 2008 of monitoring, reviewing and researching historical and contemporary events involving street gangs and individuals, efforts to supress gang-related violence in Lambeth and work to divert young people away from gangs.
Kaba was also listed as a former member of the separate 67 drill rap collective which first rose to fame around 2014, then championed by Tim Westwood and even nominated for a Music of Black Origin Award.
It was among the first of its kind to enjoy mainstream popularity and chart success, with best known track Lets Lurk.
As early as 2017, the Brixton Hill group had appeared to distance itself from street gang violence.
In an interview published in the Evening Standard, group member Dimzy said: “If they’re gonna say music makes people do things, then they should say the same about movies.”
Another member of the musical group, LD, added: “We rap about violence because we’re from a violent background. Life’s changed now. We’re leaving that world and taking people with us.”
At the time of his death, there were signs that Kaba too was receptive to change from his last conversation with a friend, Elisha Fizul.
Ms Fizul, who spoke to him on the phone minutes before he was shot, said he was “calm” and agreed with her when she gave him advice as an older person.
Local MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said “there was a lot of pain, anger and hurt” at the acquittal in Lambeth, a borough that has “the lowest confidence in police in London”.
She added: “So many black men have faced harm, in some cases death, following contact with the police
“I understand [police] have a complex job with extreme pressures, but no one is above the law. Black people are over-policed as citizens and under-policed as victims.”
