Chris Kaba's family call for decision on whether to prosecute cops over shooting
The family of a man shot dead by police want a decision made on whether to charge officers involved as they mark one year since his death.
Chris Kaba, a construction worker, who was days away from becoming a dad for the first time, was shot in the head after he was followed by an unmarked police car in Streatham Hill, southeast London, on September 5 last year. He turned into a narrow residential street and was blocked by a marked police car.
The two vehicles collided and a marksman fired one shot through the windscreen which hit Mr Kaba in the head. It later emerged that the Audi the 24-year-old was driving, which did not belong to him, had been linked by police to a firearms incident the previous day.
No gun was found in the car or near the scene of the shooting. Mr Kaba's family has been frustrated over the lack of action and claim the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) - the police watchdog - has been ‘unable to find’ the Rolex watch he was wearing when he was shot dead by an officer.
Chris Kaba's family claim his Rolex has gone missing (FAMILY HANDOUT/UNPIXS)They are now demanding the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) make a charging decision as soon as possible. In a statement, Mr Kaba's family said: "We demand a charging decision without further delay. Throughout the last year, there has been a lack of urgency. Our family, alongside the community who have supported us over the past year, have been consistent in our call for accountability.
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"We believe that it was possible within six months of Chris being killed both for the IOPC to complete a well-resourced and effective criminal investigation and for the CPS to provide us with a charging decision."
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Kaba's mother said: "We need a decision," his mother Helen said. "Not in one week, not in one month, we need it as soon as possible," his father Prosper added. "If he [the officer] was a civilian, he would have been in jail the next day. He killed Chris, he killed the family as well. There is no life for us. Everyone is missing his smile, everyone is missing his laugh, everyone is missing his jokes. I feel so empty, I need answers," Mrs Kaba added. "I need them [the CPS] to tell me why and how."
Chris Kaba's father Prosper Kaba (PA)Daniel Machover of Hickman & Rose, who represent the family, said: “I am appalled that, after the IOPC took almost seven months to complete its investigation, the CPS has failed to complete its task within a further five months. In what other comparable suspected homicide case involving firearms discharged by a civilian does the CPS consider it appropriate to take so long to make a charging decision?
“CPS decision making when police officers are suspects is too slow and cumbersome. It is also worth pointing out that, just as many of the IOPC’s most serious criminal investigations of police officers remain under-resourced and far too slow. The public interest demands that the CPS makes faster charging decisions in all cases involving police suspects, and that it notifies the family of this particular charging decision without further delay.”
Deborah Coles, director of INQUEST, said: “Chris Kaba’s death has generated significant public concern at a national and international level about how the state and its agents are held to account when they use lethal force. It is simply unacceptable we do not yet have a charging decision.
"This exacerbates the family’s trauma and grieving process. Delay, denial and defensiveness is institutionalised within the investigation system and shows how police officers are treated differently than civilians. The fundamental question remains as to how and why another unarmed Black man can be shot dead on the streets by police?”
The Met Police said it "continues to fully support the IOPC investigation".
IOPC director Amanda Rowe speaking in March, when the case was referred to the CPS said the referral does not necessarily mean that criminal charges would follow. She added: "During the investigation, the officer was advised they were under criminal investigation for murder and following the conclusion of our investigation we have referred a file of evidence to the CPS to determine whether to charge the officer. It is now for the CPS to decide, applying the tests in the Code for Crown Prosecutors, whether or not to prosecute the officer."
A CPS spokeswoman told the Mirror: "As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test."
The Kaba family is expected to hold a peaceful protest demanding justice for Chris from noon starting at New Scotland Yard on Saturday, September 9.
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