LONDON (Reuters) – A British police officer was acquitted on Monday of the murder of a Black man he shot dead in London two years ago, an incident that led to large protests and anger among the capital’s Black community.
Martyn Blake, 40, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Chris Kaba, who was unarmed and died from a single gunshot to the head in the Streatham area of south London on Sept. 5, 2022.
He was found not guilty by a jury after a three-week trial at London’s Old Bailey court.
Kaba was shot dead after his car, which had been linked to a reported shooting the previous evening, was stopped by armed police.
He had tried to drive away while boxed in by police vehicles when Metropolitan Police firearms officer Blake shot him through the car windscreen.
Prosecutor Tom Little told jurors at the start of the trial earlier this month that Blake’s decision to shoot Kaba “was not reasonably justified or justifiable”.
Blake, however, said he thought there was an “imminent threat” to his colleagues if he had not shot Kaba.
He gave evidence that he intended to incapacitate Kaba but not kill him.
“My whole intention was to stop that vehicle, which I thought was about to run my colleagues over,” Blake said.
Kaba’s death had prompted protests and anger from the capital’s Black community, which has long complained of unfair and racist treatment by the Met Police.
The decision to charge Blake was unusual: the Independent Office of Police Conduct said it or its predecessor had undertaken 26 investigations into 28 people who died in police shootings since 2013, referring just Blake and another officer – who was not charged – to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alex Richardson)
