Thousands of demonstrators marched on Saturday in Central London in a protest organised by Black Lives Matter UK (UKBLM) after police killed a black rapper.
Chris Kaba, a 24-year-old father-to-be, was fatally shot in Streatham Hill, South London, on Sept. 5 when specialist firearms officers from the Metropolitan Police (Met) cornered a car he was driving.
According to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which began an investigation shortly after the incident, Kaba died after a single shot was fired by an MPS officer.
A homicide investigation into his death has been launched after it was demanded by the family. The officer who fired the shot is not currently on operational duties. Kaba’s family on Saturday demanded the officer be suspended immediately.
Protesters marched through Whitehall to Scotland Yard. Signs reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Justice for Chris Kaba,” and “Abolish the Met” were held up as speakers using megaphones led chants such as “no justice, no peace,“ ”no racist police,” and “police are the murderers.”
According to the IOPC, Met officers from the specialist firearms command pursued the blue Audi Q5 Kaba was driving “following the activation of an automatic number plate recognition camera which indicated the vehicle was linked to a firearms incident in previous days.”
The vehicle was not registered to Kaba, the IOPC said. It previously said officers immediately administered CPR and requested support from the London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance, but Kaba died in hospital later that night.
The watchdog on Wednesday said no non-police issue firearm had been found from the vehicle or the scene.
Kaba’s family then demanded a homicide investigation into his death and suggested the rapper was shot rather than arrested because he was black.
On Friday, the IOPC said it had launched a homicide investigation into Kaba’s death following a review of evidence.
Kaba’s family issued a statement through their lawyer, welcoming the IOPC’s decision, saying it “should have immediately opened a homicide and disciplinary investigation” following Kaba’s death.
“The family now await the outcome of that investigation, but seek a charging decision in this case in weeks or a few months, not years. Public confidence in the police and our justice system requires the IOPC and CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to find a way to make decisions in this case on a timescale that delivers justice to all concerned. Avoidable delay is unacceptable,” the statement reads.
“In the meantime, the family demand that the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis immediately suspend the firearms officer, pending the outcome of the investigation.”
The Met referred The Epoch Times to a statement issued on Friday on behalf of Assistant Commissioner Amanda Pearson, who said the officer subject to the homicide investigation is “not currently on operational duties due to the formal post incident process,” and that “a senior officer will now carefully consider their work status going forward.”
Pearson offered her thoughts and sympathies to Kaba’s family and friends and said the Met shares communities’ concerns.
“I absolutely understand that this shooting is a matter of grave concern, particularly for our black communities,” she said.
“I also know what a difficult and often dangerous job firearms officers in particular do every day to try to protect the public. They understand and expect that on the very rare occasions they discharge their weapons they will face intense scrutiny. I don’t underestimate the impact on them of this development.”
Pearson urged the public to allow the IOPC the time and space needed to progress the investigation.
Kaba, who came from Wembley, north-west London, was a member of 67, a Streatham-based rap group that had been nominated for a MOBO music award.
In 2019, two other members of 67—Cassiel Wuta-Ofei, 27, and Malki Martin, 24—were jailed for nine years for dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Hampshire.
