LONDON — A London police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man two years ago was acquitted of murder Monday.
Metropolitan Police marksman Martyn Blake, 40, was cleared by a London jury in the death of Chris Kaba, who led police on a chase in a car that had been involved in a shooting a day earlier.
Kaba, 24, was killed Sept. 5, 2022, after the vehicle was boxed in by two police cars on a narrow residential street in the Streatham Hill neighborhood.
Blake fired a single round through the windshield of the Audi because he thought fellow officers’ lives were in danger when Kaba began ramming the police cars in an attempt to break free.
A prosecutor said Blake had misjudged the risk to his colleagues.
Blake was suspended from duty following anger from Black communities.