Police officer who shot Chris Kaba claims he feared colleague 'would die' if he didn't act

Themarksman who shot has told a jury he thought one of his colleagues was about to die when he opened fire.

Martyn Blake said he was 'filled with dread' as the Audi was driving moved backwards and forwards, with police officers surrounding the car. He told a jury that immediately after the fatal shooting, his first thought was relief that his colleagues were OK.

But he told the yesterday: "Then I just felt awful." Blake, 40, denies murder after he shot Mr Kaba, 24, through the windscreen of the Audi in Streatham, South East London, on September 5, 2022. He told the court that since the shooting he thinks about what happened 'every day, all the time'.

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"I've been replaying it a lot," he said. The court has already heard that when hemmed in by police cars, rapper Mr Kaba, who was unarmed, tried to ram his way out. Asked by his barrister, Patrick Gibbs KC, why he had opened fire, 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."

He told the court he aimed his gun above the steering wheel to give the best chance of hitting the central body mass of the driver. Mr Kaba was hit in the head. Asked if he had intended to kill Mr Kaba, Blake replied: "No."

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As members of Mr Kaba's family listened in court, Mr Gibbs told the jury Blake had opened fire because 'he simply and honestly believed that he needed to'. "Why else would he?" the lawyer asked. "Why else would anyone? He believed in the moment that the only way to negate a real and imminent threat to his colleagues was to do that momentous thing."

Jurors have already heard from fellow firearms officer DS87, who said he would have opened fire if Mr Blake had not, and E156, who said he was fractions of a second away from doing so. The trial continues.

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