People raise their hands as they gather outside the Old Bailey after British police officer Martyn Blake was acquitted of the 2022 murder of Chris Kaba, in London, Britain, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
LONDON (Reuters) - A Black man shot dead by a British police officer in London two years ago was the gunman in a nightclub shooting days before he was killed, it can be reported after a judge lifted reporting restrictions on Tuesday.
Chris Kaba, 24, who was unarmed, died from a single gunshot to the head in south London on Sept. 5, 2022 after his car, which had been linked to a reported shooting the previous evening, was stopped by police.
Martyn Blake, the Metropolitan Police firearms officer who shot him, was cleared on Monday of Kaba's murder after a trial at London's Old Bailey court.
The incident prompted protests and anger from the capital's Black community which has long complained of unfair and racist treatment by London's Metropolitan Police. An independent 2023 review into the force found it was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic and unable to police itself.
The Met's head said on Monday that there was more to do to build trust with communities while the force's officers also needed support when operating in difficult circumstances.
The jury that cleared Blake were not told of Kaba's links to a criminal gang, his previous convictions and his involvement in a shooting in London on Aug. 30, 2022.
Kaba, had he not been killed, would have been a defendant alongside three other members of a south London-based gang accused of the attempted murder of a member of a rival gang.
The trio were cleared of attempted murder, though two were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a firearm and jailed in April.
Jurors were also not told that a balaclava was found in Kaba's pocket after he had been shot dead.
Kaba's mother asked the court for reporting restrictions to continue, in case Kaba's inquest was heard before a jury, but that was rejected by Judge James Goss on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, Editing by William Maclean)
