Kaba familyA Metropolitan Police firearms officer accused of murdering Chris Kaba has told a court he was “filled with dread” and thought one of his colleagues could have died.
Martyn Blake shot the unarmed 24-year-old in the head during a police vehicle stop in Streatham, south London, in September 2022.
He denies murder.
Giving evidence at his trial, Mr Blake told the jury at the Old Bailey that he had had a “duty to protect” his fellow officers on the night of the stop.
Mr Kaba’s family were in the courtroom to hear the police marksman’s evidence.
When asked by defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC why his pulled the trigger, Mr Blake, 41, said: “I had a genuine belief that there was an imminent threat to life; I thought one or more of my colleagues was about to die.
“I thought I was the only person with effective firearms cover at the time.
“If I hadn’t acted I thought one of my colleagues would be dead. I felt I had a duty to protect them at the time.”
The court heard that Mr Blake joined the Metropolitan Police in 2008 and applied to be a firearms officer in 2015.
“It struck me as a challenging role with a challenging course. It was a very good course and a thoroughly good job. Best job in Metropolitan Police, working with the best colleagues,” he said.
Jurors previously heard Mr Kaba was shot in the forehead at 22:07 as he sat in the driver’s seat of an Audi car which had been linked to a gun incident in Brixton the night before.
Moments before, he had tried to get away by driving forward and then reversing into a police car which had blocked him in.
The jury was told police had been following Mr Kaba because the Audi car he was driving had been linked to a shooting in Brixton the night before.
