Chris Kaba's have seen footage of moments leading up to death and say there 'was no pursuit'

A COUSIN of Chris Kaba, who was shot dead by a Met Police firearms officer, has said there was “no chase” before the father-to-be was killed, despite the force earlier claiming a pursuit happened first.

Jefferson Bosela, has told how the family have viewed traumatic footage of the incident in Streatham, south London, on September 5.

Mr Kaba, 24, was blocked in by a marked police vehicle while driving an Audi, an inquest opening heard earlier this month on October 4.

There was “contact” between the two cars before a force marksman fired a single shot through the windscreen, hitting him in the head, the hearing was told.

Mr Bosela spoke at an annual march in central London on Saturday for bereaved families of those who have died in custody.

Thousands of people joined bereaved families, whose relatives died in custody, to march on Downing Street to push for an urgent meeting with the new Prime Minister.

Mr Bosela said: “They (police) said there was a chase, they said there was a pursuit – there was no pursuit, there was no chase, there were no lights, there were no sirens.

“Viewing the footage and the body in one week – as you can imagine for anyone, that is traumatic, so we didn’t want the added pressure of the media trying to find out what was in the footage.”

On September 6, the day after the incident, the Met released a statement claiming there had been a “pursuit of a suspect vehicle”.

It read: “At 9:51pm on September 5, specialist firearms officers were in pursuit of a suspect vehicle in the Lambeth area.”

At the inquest opening, it was confirmed that the Met Police armed officer, named only as NX121, was being investigated for Mr Kaba's murder.

The Independent Office of Police Conduct previously announced it was carrying out a homicide investigation, which can cover murder or manslaughter.

However, at the opening of the inquest into the death of construction worker Mr Kaba, 24, this morning, Dean Brown, lead IOPC investigator on the case said: "The officer is under criminal investigation for the offence of murdering Mr Kaba."

Inner South London Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Kaba, who has a previous firearms conviction, was driving an Audi that was wanted in connection with a firearms incident the previous day.

Essex News and Investigations has established that the Audi was not wanted in connection with the firearms murder of Maximillian Kusi-Owusu, 29, (above) which happened in Kensington High Street at just after 2am on September 4.

There had been another firearms incident that day, but no details of it were released by the Met.

A Met Police spokesman said: "We are not discussing the incident on September 4 given the ongoing IOPC investigation."

Mr Brown's full statement during the inquest opening: "On Monday 5 September 2022, Mr Chris Kaba was driving an Audi motor vehicle in South London. The Audi Mr Kaba was driving was believed to be linked to a firearms incident which took place the previous day and an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) marker had been placed upon it.

A briefing was provided to officers prior to their shift on 5 September in which the Audi was brought to their attention as being potentially associated with the firearms incident the previous day. Mr Kaba’s name was not included in this briefing.

According to police logs and accounts received to date by officers, the Audi was recognised by officers parked at the side of the A202 in Camberwell Green in an unmarked armed response vehicle (ARV). The officers then started to follow the vehicle and circulated this via police airwaves at around 9.52pm.

Officers continued to follow the Audi until 10.07pm. The officers did not activate their lights or sirens while following the vehicle. The intention was to use an ‘enforced stop extraction’ on the Audi.

At around 10.07pm, Mr Kaba made a left turn from New Park Road onto Kirkstall Gardens. Already present on Kirkstall Gardens was a marked police armed response vehicle. The marked ARV had parked on Kirkstall Gardens with the intention of joining the other police vehicles behind the Audi once it had passed the junction. One of the officers inside the marked ARV was NX121.

Once Mr Kaba made the left turn the decision was taken to perform an ‘inline extraction’. Armed officers exited their vehicles and approached the Audi. The evidence suggests that contact was made between the Audi driven by Mr Kaba and the police vehicles.

The evidence further suggests that officer NX121 was standing to the front of Mr Kaba’s vehicle. A single shot was fired by officer NX121 piercing the front windscreen of the vehicle Mr Kaba was driving and struck him.

Officers at the scene provided first aid to Mr Kaba before he was taken to King’s College Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12.16am on Tuesday 6 September 2022.

Substantial progress has been made in the investigation to date. IOPC investigators attended the scene of the incident in the hours after it occurred and an independent investigation was declared as soon as the IOPC was informed.

Two post incident processes have taken place, during which the key police witnesses have provided their S9 statements.

The officer who discharged their firearm – NX121 – has been notified they are under criminal investigation for the offence of the murder of Mr Kaba.

The terms of reference for the case have been drafted and a 6 - 9 month timeframe has been set to complete the investigation.

Forensic work was conducted, both at the scene and later on the Audi Mr Kaba was driving, along with a number of police vehicles. This work is extensive and remains ongoing.

Investigators have conducted a number of house-to-house and CCTV trawls on Kirkstall Gardens and the surrounding area. The investigation is still eager to hear from anyone who has not made contact to date who witnessed the incident.

A post-mortem on Mr Kaba has been completed and further pathological work is in train. A provisional cause of death of ‘gunshot wound to the head’ has been issued.

The IOPC has met with the family of Mr Kaba and their representatives. They will continue to be updated in line with all IOPC investigations."