The police marksman who shot Chris Kaba dead has told a court he opened fire because he thought a colleague was about to die.
Giving evidence for the first time at his Old Bailey trial, Martyn Blake said he was “filled with dread” when the Audi that Mr Kaba was driving moved backwards and forwards as officers surrounded the car.
The officer, formally known as NX121, fatally shot Mr Kaba as the 24-year-old was sat in the driver’s seat with both hands on the steering wheel in Streatham, southeast London, on 5 September 2022.
An operation was launched to stop the vehicle because its registration had been linked to a shooting outside a school in Brixton the night before, the court has heard.
Blake, who denies murder, said he could hear wheel-spinning and the car’s engine revving as armed officers tried to get Mr Kaba to get out of the car.
Asked why he pulled the trigger, the Metropolitan Police officer 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.”
Blake said he aimed at Mr Kaba’s central body mass, as officers are trained, and acknowledged such a shot could be fatal.
But asked if he had intended to kill Mr Kaba, the 40-year-old defendant replied: “No.”
“Every officer in the department… thinks it will never happen to them,” he said.
“You hope it won’t happen to you.”
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Before Blake gave evidence, defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC told the jury that prosecutors have suggested either the defendant had a mistaken belief about risk, or took an unlawful decision to kill, but that there was a third possibility that he was right about the risk.
He told the jury the marksman opened fire because “he simply and honestly believed that he needed to”.
“Why else would he?” Mr Gibbs asked the jury. “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.”
The trial continues.