London police officer who fatally shot black rapper Chris Kaba is acquitted of murder

A London police officer who fatally shot a black motorist two years ago was acquitted of murder on Monday.

Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake, 40, was cleared by a London jury in the death of rapper Chris Kaba, who was unarmed but who was driving a vehicle that had been involved in a shooting a day earlier.

Kaba, 24, was killed after the vehicle was boxed in by two police cars on a narrow residential street in the Streatham Hill neighbourhood on September 5, 2022.

Blake fired a single round through the windscreen of the Audi because he thought fellow officers’ lives were in danger when Kaba began ramming the police cars in an attempt to break free.

A prosecutor said Blake misjudged the risk to his colleagues.

Blake was suspended from duty following anger from black communities.