The problem at the heart of the Chris Kaba case

There are few moments more serious than when the state takes the life of a citizen, when a police officer kills someone in the line of duty. Such an event demands an independent and rigorous investigation in which the officer accounts for his or her actions. The family and friends of the person who has died deserve nothing less. But the prosecution of Martyn Blake, the firearms officer accused, and now cleared, of murdering Chris Kaba in September 2022 has raised uncomfortable questions about that process. There was something about the trial that didn’t feel right. 

Sergeant Blake shot and killed Kaba through the windscreen of the Audi he had been driving in Streatham, South London. The car had been linked to a firearms incident in Brixton the previous night in which a man was spotted with a shotgun. Three men in dark hoodies were seen to change clothes and drive away.