What happened to Chris Kaba?

A Metropolitan Police officer has been suspended from frontline duties after fatally shooting an unarmed black man last week.

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Chris Kaba was driving a car in south London on 5 September when the vehicle, which was later found to be registered to a different name, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), was picked up by an automatic number plate recognition camera for having recently been linked to a firearms incident. 

Police officers pursued the vehicle, which was “subsequently cornered by two police cars” in Streatham Hill, said HuffPost. A specialist firearms officer then fired a single shot through the driver’s side of the windscreen.

The IOPC said that CPR was “immediately administered” and ambulance service support quickly requested. Kaba, who was 24, died later that night in hospital.

In a statement last week, his family said: “We are devastated; we need answers and we need accountability. 

“We are worried that if Chris had not been Black, he would have been arrested on Monday evening and not had his life cut short.” 

It’s since become known that Kaba was expecting a child with his fiancée, Karima Waite, who described the rapper as a “very kind, loving and caring young man”, said South London Press.

The IOPC’s investigation “entered a new phase” four days after Kaba’s death, when it was announced that a homicide investigation had been opened.

Kaba’s death “has shaken people across the UK”, said HuffPost. Metro reported that “hundreds of protesters” gathered in central London last weekend “to express fury” at the shooting.

At a vigil last night, the atmosphere was “tense”, with many in attendance saying that the officer’s suspension “is far too little, far too late”, said the BBC.

Assistant Commissioner Amanda Pearson said that the decision to suspend the firearms officer “does not determine the outcome of the IOPC’s investigation”. 

London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that he welcomed the decision, and said he is in regular contact with the police watchdog and the Met’s new commissioner, Mark Rowley.