Sky News is being investigated by Ofcom after it wrongly referred to people protesting following Chris Kaba's death as a crowd mourning Queen Elizabeth II.
Kaba, 24, was shot and killed by a Metropolitan Police officer on September 5 in South London. There was a police pursuit of the vehicle he was driving which ended in Streatham Hill, south London.
The Audi he was driving was hemmed in by two police vehicles in Kirkstall Gardens, a narrow residential street, and one round was fired from a police weapon. The Metropolitan Police officer involved has been suspended by the force and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating.
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Kaba's family organised a number of demonstrations, starting at Parliament Square and heading to Scotland Yard, including one on September 10. Sky News received backlash on that day after mistaking the protest for mourners on their way to Buckingham Palace to pay their respects to the late Queen.
A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “We are investigating whether this programme broke our rules requiring news to be reported with due accuracy.”
The regulator confirmed that it received 598 complaints saying that the Justice for Chris Kaba walk was incorrectly reported as people on their way to pay tribute to the late Queen.
On Friday (September 23) Kaba's family criticised the media for “offensive” reports about past offences which the 24-year-old is alleged to have committed. Jefferson Bosela, Mr Kaba’s cousin, said the allegations were “a distraction” from establishing the circumstances around Mr Kaba’s death.
Mr Bosela said: “It is extremely distressing to read offensive media allegations about Chris’s past. We have no idea whether the claims are correct, but we can’t see how they are relevant to the police’s decision to shoot Chris dead.
"Everyone in this country has the right to go about their business without fear of being killed by the police. There are very limited circumstances in which the police can use force. When a person is killed as a result of that use of force, their death must be fully and properly investigated, no matter what the people involved may – or may not have – done in their past.
“Chris was a loving son, caring brother, excited father-to-be and a young man with so much potential. His family and friends will always remember him that way. Media speculation about his past is a distraction from what must be the priority, which is establishing precisely how and why he was killed.”
In a statement to the Metro, a spokesperson for Sky apologised. They said: "We apologise for a mistake made earlier today which accidentally misidentified aerial pictures of a protest march for Chris Kaba as a large gathering paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. We have also issued a correction on air to clarify the footage previously shown."
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