Police marksman ‘was fractions of a second away from firing gun at Chris Kaba’

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A police marksman was “fractions of a second” away from firing his gun at Chris Kaba when the 24-year-old was shot by another officer, a jury has heard.

The officer, known only as E156, told jurors at the Old Bailey that he mistakenly thought he had fired the fatal shot in the seconds after Mr Kaba was fatally injured.

Martyn Blake, 40, is on trial for murder over the death of Mr Kaba in Streatham, south-east London on September 5, 2022, which he denies.

Mr Kaba was driving an Audi that was hemmed in by unmarked and marked police cars in Kirkstall Gardens when he was shot.

He drove the Audi forwards and backwards as he tried to push his way between a marked police patrol car and a parked Tesla.

E156 told the jury on Monday: “I thought one of my colleagues was going to get killed.”

He said he had been “fractions of a second” away from firing his gun.

Earlier, the jury was told that another officer known as DS87 also said he had been ready to fire.

E156 had positioned himself on the bonnet of a car next to the Audi that Mr Kaba was driving, but had struggled to get into a stable enough stance, the court heard.

He tried to shine the laser from his gun onto Mr Kaba as a warning, and described him as hunching forward behind the wheel of the Audi and staring straight ahead.

E156 said he thought “someone was going to get run over or seriously hurt”.

When he heard a gunshot, he said: “For a moment I thought that I actually shot (him). I had to have a little second to myself.”

He went on: “I’d already got myself in a position to be ready to fire and I thought I had for a split second, before the rest of my brain took over.”

Fellow firearms officers told the jury they feared someone would be run over and seriously hurt or killed.

The driver of an unmarked police Volvo that was directly behind the Audi described “a very dramatic scene” unfolding.

Known by the cypher AY3, he told the court there was a risk of “extreme injury or death” had one of the officers been dragged under the Audi.

Under questioning by Patrick Gibbs KC, defending, he explained that officers do not train with vehicles shunting backwards and forwards, because it is too dangerous.

They are also advised not to go in a specific area at the front of a car called “the triangle of death”.

Another officer, NX109 – who was sitting in the back of the Volvo on the driver’s side when Mr Kaba was hemmed in, got out of the Volvo and tried to open the driver’s door of the Audi, before it crashed into the marked police patrol car and a Tesla parked nearby.

“I put my hand… in the handle of the driver’s door and it was at that point I hear revving and I can feel the car moving and I manage to remove my hand as the vehicle moves forward and collides with the Tesla,” he told the court.

The jury was shown the officer’s body-worn camera footage where he can be heard shouting “mind him, mind him” to his colleagues.

NX109 told the jury he could hear wheel spinning from the Audi and did not think it was going to stop.

He told the court it was “an overwhelming feeling“ to see dashcam footage of what happened for the first time.

“I was being pulled by the vehicle and just managed to get my hand out,” he said.

A rubber knuckle on the glove he was wearing momentarily got caught in the door handle, the court was told.

“I thought I was going to get pulled into the gap between the two vehicles,” he said.

The trial before Mr Justice Goss continues on Tuesday.