The family of Chris Kaba, the Black man who was shot and killed by Metropolitan Police last month, have said they “will not rest” until “someone [has been] held accountable” following an inquest into the 24-year-old’s death.
Relatives of the father-to-be attended Inner South London Coroner’s Court on Tuesday for a brief hearing to open the inquest. The court was told how Kaba was shot by a police marksman through the windscreen of the car that he was driving in Streatham Hill, South London, on September 5.
Coroner Andrew Harris launched the meeting by offering his condolences to Kaba’s parents, brother and cousin who sat in the courtroom. The court heard how officers had tailed the car that Kaba had been driving but did not activate their lights or sirens, with the intention of using an “enforced stop extraction”. There was no police chase.
After the shooting, witnesses reported seeing Kaba attempting to ram his way free before he was shot dead. The Audi that he was driving was hemmed in by two police cars and had been linked to a firearms incident the previous day, leading to it being tailed by police and then eventually stopped.
Dean Brown, from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), told the court police officers had been briefed about the suspect vehicle before they started their shift that day, but Kaba’s name “was not included in this briefing”. Senior Coroner Andrew Harris adjourned the inquest for further investigations, which will run alongside the IOPC homicide investigation.
After the hearing, Kaba’s cousin, Jefferson Bosela, said in a statement that today was “another step in achieving justice” for Chris. “We need answers,” he said. “Not just this family, but the whole of London—the whole of the country—needs to know how something like this could occur? How can a young man, sitting in a car, unarmed, be shot in the head by police in London in 2022?
“This should never have happened. It must never happen again. We must never accept this as normal. Someone must be held accountable.”
The Metropolitan Police officer involved in the murder of Chris Kaba has been suspended from duty with full pay.
