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London Cop Who Shot Dead Unarmed Black Man Charged With Murder (www.vice.com)

submitted 1 year ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

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[-] Syldon@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

Needs more information, which obviously will come out after the trial.

[-] livus@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

@Syldon

Here's some from a more detailed article:

There are still many unknown details about Chris Kaba’s death. What we do know is that on 5 September, Kaba was driving through south London when an automatic number plate recognition camera flagged the car he was in as recently being linked to a firearms incident. The IOPC has said that the car was not registered under Kaba’s name.

Police officers then pursued Kaba, eventually performing a “controlled stop” – two police vehicles collided with his car, cornering him in Streatham Hill. A specialist firearms officer then fired a single shot at the driver’s side through the windscreen, hitting Kaba in the back of the head. He was taken to hospital, where he died two hours later. According to Kaba’s family, they were not told of his death for 11 hours.

After a thorough search of the car Kaba was driving, the IOPC reported that no firearm was found

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

I think this leaves out a bit.

At around 10.07pm, Kaba made a left turn from New Park Road onto Kirkstall Gardens.[5] A marked armed response vehicle was waiting on this road.[5] Police vehicles boxed the car in, and witnesses claimed that Kaba ignored repeated orders to get out of the vehicle, and was trying to ram the Audi through the roadblock.[6] Armed officers exited their vehicles then approached the Audi on foot.[5] According to the IOPC, a police officer fired a single round at Kaba through the car's windscreen, striking him.[5][6] He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries just after 12:00 am the following day.[7]

Also I found this really interesting

On 21 September the family of the deceased viewed the police body-worn camera footage of the incident. Having seen it, Kaba's cousin said that they would be taking a step back in their protest about the death.

The original BBC article words it a bit differently

Afterwards, Mr Kaba's cousin Jefferson Bosela repeated Ms Nkama's comments, saying the family now wants "justice" but that they would now be taking a "step back" after some initial campaigning following Mr Kaba's death.

Not sure what they changed their mind about

[-] Manmoth@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

This should be the top comment right here. Some actual context around what happened.

[-] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

I'd love to know what "recently linked to a firearms incident" actually means, especially given that it seems to have been flagged by an automated system and that "firearms incident" was seen as justification to ram a car off the road and then shoot the occupant in the back before any actual threat was verified.

[-] livus@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

According to OP's article it had been used in a shooting. Still not really an excuse to kill its occupant though.

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

What's your source for these claims?

Comment above cites more ofbthe article claiming he was trying to ram through a roadblock, and his family took a step back from public protests after they were shown footage of the incident

[-] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

The article, where they say the cops rammed him off the road, that he was shot in the back of the head and that the subsequent investigation found no weapons

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

The one where they say he tried to ram his way out a police encirclement

[-] Syldon@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah I looked around. It still needs the trial to be completed first.

Did the guy do something silly that made the policeman shoot, is an unanswered question.

What was the criteria for releasing the shot would be the second question. The CPS will not prosecute without a fair chance at conviction, but innocent until proven and all that.

You could also be asking what was he doing in a car with the history it had, but that should not be justification to kill someone. I would not wish for the UK to follow in the US footsteps of frivolous shootings.

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Did the guy do something silly that made the policeman shoot, is an unanswered question.

I saw this in the Wikipedia article

But witnesses claimed the driver ignored police requests to give himself up and when he attempted to ram his way out of the roadblock, officers opened fire.

Dunno how the situation actually went down though