04 October 2023 , 08:55
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Armed police around the country are preparing to hand in their guns if the officer accused of murdering Chris Kaba is named by a judge today.
The serving Met officer was charged last month with the murder of Mr Kaba, 24, who he shot in Streatham Hill, South London, in September last year. Marksmen from three forces have now told Sky News that they will down their weapons if the marksman, so far known only as NX121, loses his anonymity at an Old Bailey hearing on Wednesday morning.
NX121 is currently the subject of a court order banning him from being named which was imposed last week. But Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, could lift the anonymity order at the court hearing. Scores of officers downed their arms in protest last week when the officer was charged with murder.
Mr Kaba was killed at Kirkstall Gardens in Streatham Hill in September 2022 (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)Now armed officers from three other forces have told Sky News that they are planning the same. One West Midlands Police officer said: "Every person I've spoken to in my team say they'll hand in their tickets to carry weapons. The officers are very, very nervous. We, as firearms officers, don't feel we've had the necessary support to do our job.
"This is an extremely dangerous job, so why should we risk our lives if we don't have the legal protection to do our jobs? If the anonymity of officer NX121 is lifted, it will mean a huge crisis in policing nationwide. I've not spoken to one officer who isn't considering their future. I'd leave this job, and I've spoken to others who would do the same."
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It is standard procedure for those charged with a crime to be named publicly in open court, but the legal team for the defence has made an application for officer NX121 to remain anonymous. The Kaba family have called for the anonymity order to be lifted.
In a statement, the family's lawyer said: "On what we have been told until now, we can see no basis on which the officer in question should not be named, as part of the fair and accurate reporting of this case, which is in the interests of open justice." Former firearms officer Anthony Long was named in 2014 before his trial for the alleged murder of Azelle Rodney in London ten years earlier.
Mr Long was later cleared. Mr Kaba was due to become a father when he was killed by a bullet fired through the windscreen of a car he was driving. He was shot in the head after being followed by an unmarked police car with no lights or sirens for around three miles.
He turned into a narrow residential street where he was said to have collided with a marked police car that had been waiting for him. It later emerged that the Audi Mr Kaba was driving, which did not belong to him, had been linked by police to a firearms incident the previous day.