Martyn Blake should never have been prosecuted for shooting dead Chris Kaba. While the unfortunate Kaba may not have been carrying a gun at the time of his fatal wounding, the stark truth is that he was not “unarmed” – he was driving a car that threatened to maim or kill Blake's fellow officers at any moment.
And as it emerged yesterday with the lifting of reporting restrictions, Kaba was in fact a notorious criminal gang member with a violent past at the time of his shooting two years ago in Streatham, south London.
Firearms officers had every reason to think he might be armed.
And Blake, a highly-trained officer, had to make a split second decision under huge pressure. Ultimately, he made the right one. Unfortunately, it wasn't one backed up by investigators.
It's worth stating that there is nothing more tragic than the death of a young man caught up in a chain of events resulting in his death. Kaba's family are right to be profoundly upset at his loss of life, especially as he was not carrying a weapon at the time. However, Kaba had used his vehicle to try and ram his way through a blockade of police cars and Sgt Blake feared for his team's lives. It was in that instance that he took aim at Kaba with the intention of disabling him.
Other officers were just seconds away from doing the same thing. One colleague of Sgt Blake's speaking anonymously after his acquittal said there was no evidence the officer had done anything wrong, illegal or outside of his training.
What we now know is that Kaba was driving a car that had been involved in a shooting incident the day before. He was also a core member of a criminal gang involved in two shootings less than a week before this confrontation.
Furthermore, Kaba would have stood trial for the attempted murder of a rival gangster had he not been shot dead. Gunshot residue was found on his clothes the night he was killed.
Justice Simon Mayo told the court that it was accepted that Kaba was the gunman. He said there were many clubbers standing next to the victim who could have suffered “death or serious injury” when Kaba opened fire. The judge said: “Having spotted Malutshi in the nightclub, I am sure Kaba decided he was going to shoot him.”
Reacting almost instantaneously to an immediate threat to life is the responsibility and burden armed police officers bear. If they hesitate, they might allow the death of a colleague or innocent member of the public.
It is a tough, unenviable choice that requires a quick response.
Sgt Blake told the jury: “The male had already shown a propensity to use violence and was happy to use any means to escape and I had a genuine held belief that one or many of my colleagues could be killed by the car, and that the The driver would not stop his attempt to escape at any cost.” The jury agreed unanimously and acquitted him of the charge of murder.
When he was charged in September last year, more than 100 armed officers handed in their gun permits in protest.
Rightly fearful for the consequences of their actions in similar split-second decisions, they need to know they have the backing and support of the Met Police force in extremely difficult circumstances. Otherwise, as they emphasized, innocent civilians could be at greater risk from dangerous criminals.
Crucially, Sgt Blake had never fired a shot in the heat of the moment before in his career. Morale is already low within the police as heightened surveillance and distorted snippets of social media information can and do often portray the police in a poor light in high-risk situations.
Of course, officers should be subject to investigation in the event of controversial occurrences, which is why we have an independent police watchdog IPCC for such purposes, but the murder charge now appears to be a terrible call by the Crown Prosecution Service, especially bearing in Mind the circumstances and what we know of Chris Kaba.
We are fortunate in this country to have a police force where such incidents are fairly rare. In comparison in the US there are between 900 and 1,200 fatal shootings a year by law enforcement officers.
We need a police force that is fearless in upholding the law and protecting the public. That means trusting their judgment when lethal force is used. The public also needs to be reassured that the application of the law is equal across society. A police inquiry without suspension would have been the better procedure here.
This tragic incident reminds us of the difficult choices armed police have to make every day in this country. Many have already saved lives; We can only hope officers have the continued confidence to pursue their brave defense of our security.