Chris Kaba aware police were following him, court told
Family hand out
Chris Kaba died from a single gunshot wound
A man who was shot dead by a police marksman was aware officers were following him in the moments before he was killed, a court has been told.
Chris Kaba was driving and on the phone to his friend Elisha Fizul while he was being tailed by an unmarked police car, itself followed by two marked police cars. He told her he thought the police were behind him, the Old Bailey heard.
Met Police officer Martyn Blake denies the murder of the 23-year-old, who was shot in Streatham, south-east London, in September 2022.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the jury: “She (Ms Fizul) had invited him to her birthday but at this point the call became muted so she did not hear what then took place.”
Shot through windscreen
Jurors were then played body-worn camera footage from an armed officer, identified only as DS87, showing Mr Kaba with his right hand on the steering wheel of the Audi he was driving and his left arm half in the air.
It was dark at the time, but the interior of the car was lit up by a torch on DS87’s gun.
Mr Kaba then drove the Audi forwards, hitting a police car, and DS87 ran around to face the front of the Audi, the jury was told.
DS87 was standing next to Mr Blake when the accused shot Mr Kaba through the windscreen of the car.
Julia Quenzler
The trial is taking place at the Old Bailey in front of Mr Justice Goss
Mr Little told the jurors they would want to consider the positions of the armed officers around the car and whether they were at risk at the time the fatal shot was fired.
Mr Blake, 40, had not turned his body-worn camera on at the point of the shooting but did so seconds after. The previous 60 seconds of footage were automatically captured but without sound.
This footage was played to the jury, synced with sound captured by the cameras worn by fellow armed officers at the scene.
Footage from a number of officers’ body-worn cameras and police dashcams was also shown to the court.
It showed Mr Kaba driving forwards to try to get between the marked police car facing him and the parked car next to it.
The unmarked police car that had been following him drove forwards as he tried to reverse, to prevent him from going any further backwards.
Shouts of “shots fired” and “where from?” could then be heard.
The trial continues.
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