Chris Kaba informed a friend that he believed law enforcement was trailing him just moments before he was fatally shot by a police firearms officer, a court has been informed.
On September 5, 2022, Mr. Kaba was positioned in the driver’s seat of a dark Audi with both hands gripping the steering wheel when Metropolitan Police firearms officer Martyn Blake, aged 40, shot him once in the head.
Blake stands trial facing a charge of murdering Mr. Kaba, a claim he refutes. His identity was previously safeguarded by an anonymity order, which a judge has now revoked for the purposes of this trial’s reporting.
The Audi’s registration was connected to a gun-related incident following reports of a man seen with a shotgun the prior evening, coupled with gunfire heard in Brixton, leading police to pursue the vehicle, as outlined in the Old Bailey proceedings.
The dark Audi Q8 driven by Chris Kaba. Pic: IOPC
Elisha Fizul reached out to the 24-year-old father-to-be via WhatsApp ten minutes prior to his fatal shooting by Blake during a police interception in Streatham, South London, the court learned.
Jurors were informed that his final words before the line disconnected were: “Lish, one sec, I think there are police behind me.”
Helen Lumuanganu (left), the mother of Chris Kaba, arriving at the Old Bailey in September. Pic: PA
‘A typical conversation’
In a statement read to the court on Friday, Ms. Fizul revealed that she had maintained a friendship with Mr. Kaba for around two years prior to his death.
She noted: “I contacted Chris via WhatsApp at 8 PM on September 5. Regrettably, he did not answer my call immediately.
“Chris returned my call at 9:57 PM. He informed me that he was driving when he called back. I was at home.
“Chris and I were engaged in a typical conversation.
“At one point during our discussion, Chris remarked, ‘Lish, one sec, I think there’s police behind me.’
“I continued conversing with Chris. However, Chris did not reply, and at that moment, I realized that he had muted the call on his end.
“I did not end the call immediately. I kept asking, ‘can you hear me?’ and ‘unmute me, please.’ The call concluded at 10:07 PM.
“I redialed almost instantly to see if he would respond. He did not. I expected Chris to return my call within ten minutes, but he never did.
“The following morning, I discovered that Chris had passed away. I was, and still am, profoundly shocked and grieved by Chris’s death.”
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The trial has already heard Blake’s account of the shooting and the pivotal 15 seconds in which Mr. Kaba turned onto Kirkstall Gardens, followed closely by three police vehicles—one unmarked and two marked.
Mr. Kaba had attempted to evade capture by driving forward and subsequently reversing into a police car that had confined him, as previously informed to the jurors.
The trial is ongoing.
