LONDON (AP) — A London police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist two years ago was acquitted Monday of murder.
Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake, 40, was cleared by a London jury in the death of Chris Kaba, who was unarmed but 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 neighborhood on Sept. 5, 2022.
Blake fired a single round through the windshield 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, exaggerated the threat in statements after the shooting and aimed for Kaba's head.
Blake, who denied those allegations, was suspended from duty following anger from Black communities.
Fatal shootings by police in the U.K. are rare. In the year to March 2023, officers in England and Wales who are authorized to carry a gun fired their weapons at people 10 times and killed three, according to official statistics.
It is extremely rare for British police officers to be charged with murder or manslaughter over actions performed on duty.
Jurors in London's Central Criminal Court deliberated for about three hours before finding Blake not guilty.
Blake let out a puff of relief as the verdict was read. Kaba’s family, seated in the courtroom, showed no visible reaction.
Prosecutors said their thoughts were with the Kaba family, but they respected the jury’s decision.
“We recognize that firearms officers operate under enormous pressure, but it is our responsibility to put cases before a jury that meet our test for prosecution, and we are satisfied that test was met in this case,” Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division said.
Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said during his closing argument that Blake was not a “RoboCop with total vision and nanosecond reactions like a computer.”
“He is not a robot, he is a human being with a human brain who did this to the best of his ability,” Gibbs said.
Another firearms officer said he would have taken the shot if Blake had not and another said he was fractions of a second from pulling the trigger.
The Associated Press