A march in support of the family of Chris Kaba took place at the weekend, protesters gathering to demand justice for the 24-year-old shot dead by police on Tuesday last week. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has now launched a homicide investigation into the incident after his family called for a murder probe, asking the IOPC to ‘use all of its powers to make this an effective criminal investigation so the police are held to account.’
Kaba, who was due to become a father later this year, died after a police pursuit of a car saw his Audi hemmed into a narrow residential street in Streatham. A specialist firearms office - who is no longer on operational duties according to Scotland Yard – fired a single gunshot at 10pm on Monday night. The IOPC said CPR was administered immediately and support was requested by the ambulance service, but Kaba later died in hospital on Tuesday morning.
The IOPC say an Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera indicated the vehicle driven by Kaba, which was not registered to him, was linked to a firearms incident in the previous days, resulting in police pursuit. However, no ‘non-police issue firearm’ had been found following a detailed search of the car and surrounding area.
Kaba’s family have accused the Met Police of racism, his father Propser Kaba telling BBC ‘For us, it is totally racist and criminal and we want all the community, especially the minority community, to see this as a racism case.’
‘We are devastated; we need answers and we need accountability,’ the family added in a statement. ‘We are worried that if Chris had not been black, he would have been arrested on Monday evening and not had his life cut short.’
Their campaign has the support of British rapper Stormzy and MPs Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who attended the protest through London. ‘Chris has a mother, he has a family, he has brothers, he has friends, people who knew him in real life, who for them, it's unbearable,’ Stormzy told the crowd. ‘Everyone here today, I would encourage everyone to have stamina.
‘And I know it's a very difficult thing to say… But when these people do these things, they get away with it, because what happens is we do this once, we get tired, we tweet, we get tired, we do it for a week, we do it for two weeks, we do it for a month, and they know we get tired,’ he continued. ‘What they've done is they've killed someone. We can't sugar coat it.’
Kim Alleyne, whose daughter Kamirah Waite was due to marry Kaba next year, told protestors: ‘He was so loved. He was so funny. He was super kind. He's got a baby on the way that he's never going to see.’
The Met Police has said it is fully co-operating with the IOPC and that its ‘thoughts and sympathies remain with Mr Kaba's friends and family.’
Amanda Pearson, the Met's Assistant Commissioner said she ‘absolutely understands that this shooting is a matter of grave concern, particularly for our Black communities. I also know what a difficult and often dangerous job firearms officers in particular do every day to try to protect the public. They understand and expect that on the very rare occasions they discharge their weapons they will face intense scrutiny. I don't underestimate the impact on them of this development.’
A post-mortem examination, which will determine a provisional cause of death, is due to take place this week.