Chris Kaba

[RaceWithChyna]

The police officer who shot Chris Kaba has finally been charged with murder. It took a while after investigations had to be held but I’m glad the CPS decided to charge the anonymous police officer.

Before people start, yes he’d been in jail. Yes, he’d apparently drove towards officers at an attempt to get away. None of this means he deserved to be killed with an immediate head shot. To make matters worse, he wasn’t even the person they were after. They only realised it was someone else after the fact that he was dead.

I hope the family get the justice that they deserve.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-66865099.amp

[Greenshake]

I would prefer to wait for the full facts before making a judgment.

[RaceWithChyna]

And that’s absolutely your choice! I’m simply posting my opinion based on the information that have been provided by the CPS and the media.

More detailed information will come out whilst the trial is ongoing but I 100% agree with the charge given

[Westfacing]

It's rare for a police officer to be charged in such circumstance, and I think there has been no conviction for murder, so presumably the CPS think they have a strong case to bring a murder charge.

That said, who'd be an armed police officer - can't be easy making split second life or death decisions.

[RaceWithChyna]

Agreed, it’s not a job that I’d like to do

[Poppyblush]

I’m sure there a lot more to this story than what is being reported.

[KateyCuckoo]

Yes I agree, the officers should expect and accept being driven at, why would you do such a job and not expect to be recklessly endangered?

[LilyJessie]

Police officers are humans.
They have lives, families friends, dependants.

Police officers should absolutely not expect and accept being driven at. Shame on you.

Police officers are there to enforce the law and to keep people safe, not to be run over, attacked, or hurt.

[Perfect28]

@LilyJessie kaba also had a life, family and friends?

[TodayInahurry]

Let us hope the officer will not be stitched up like the one in the US? If he is convicted there will be no more armed police, only armed criminals

[Westfacing]

@TodayInahurry

Let us hope the officer will not be stitched up like the one in the US? If he is convicted there will be no more armed police, only armed criminals

Which US case are you referring to?

[MintJulia]

It's extremely rare for a fire arms officer to be charged with murder in this way, so I imagine there are some very specific circumstances that have lead to the charge being brought.

The officer will be well represented and supported by the police federation. All the details need to come out in court for the public and the Kaba family to understand exactly what happened and why. Then a jury can decide.

I don't envy the police officer his job, it must be very difficult to make such decisions in a split second, while being driven at, even with all their training.

[MidnightOnceMore]

The police service needs better funding and better recruitment/training/support. The public need armed police officers to be accountable for their actions, accepting the unique nature of the role.

[LilyJessie]

@Perfect28

I'm not sure your point here?
I haven't said that he did not have friends or family?
Nor have I said that he deserved to be shot?
I have been mindful of saying nothing about the incident itself.

But just because Chris was shot, does not mean that all the police officers in the world should expect and accept that they might be run over.

[OneFrenchEgg]

I think there are several choices before executing someone, and I'd expect a person legally authorised and trained to carry a gun to run through them in that split second. I'm pleased to see this decision.

[November2024Mummy]

I think there was a fairly recent US case here an officer was stood in front of a car and the driver tried to move off and was killed.

I don't think it's wise for an officer to place themselves in front of a car if that's what happened. Even if it is considered justified in that moment, the whole situation could be avoided

[SerendipityJane]

Police fans needn't worry. The first whiff of any chance of a conviction and the armed officers in the Met will go on strike. Always does the trick.

Police cynics will recognise this as SOP from the "We've shot someone we shouldn't have" playbook. Affectionately known in the Met as the Brown Book for it's contents of fudge.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/nov/03/ukcrime.adamjay

[Greenshake]

It’s nothing to do with being a “police fan”. It’s about having a fair trial where all the facts, information and evidence are put before a Court.

[RaceWithChyna]

@OneFrenchEgg

I think there are several choices before executing someone, and I'd expect a person legally authorised and trained to carry a gun to run through them in that split second. I'm pleased to see this decision.

I agree with this 100%. Firing a fatal headshot is insane to me. No, I wasn’t there before any jumps on me.

But surely if someone is blocked in and trying to escape, why not shoot the tires? Why not shoot them in the arm or hand so that they’re injured and can no longer drive in that moment? Why shoot to kill and not shoot to injure? I don’t understand that part.

As a pp has said, it’s rare for an armed police officer to be charged with murder in this country. There’s clearly a lot of information regarding this case that we don’t know about. I’ll be following the trial very closely when it starts

[KateyCuckoo]

@LilyJessie

Police officers are humans.
They have lives, families friends, dependants.

Police officers should absolutely not expect and accept being driven at. Shame on you.

Police officers are there to enforce the law and to keep people safe, not to be run over, attacked, or hurt.

Was that at me? I was being ironic! My dh is a police officer.

[SnowflakeCity]

@RaceWithChyna

I agree with this 100%. Firing a fatal headshot is insane to me. No, I wasn’t there before any jumps on me.

But surely if someone is blocked in and trying to escape, why not shoot the tires? Why not shoot them in the arm or hand so that they’re injured and can no longer drive in that moment? Why shoot to kill and not shoot to injure? I don’t understand that part.

As a pp has said, it’s rare for an armed police officer to be charged with murder in this country. There’s clearly a lot of information regarding this case that we don’t know about. I’ll be following the trial very closely when it starts

If you shoot a tyre you don't know where the bullet might ricochet to. If you shoot an out of control person in the hand or arm you risk escalating the situation further because now you have a dangerous person even more pissed off because they have a bullet in them. It's also pretty difficult even for a skilled marksman to shoot someone in their hand for instance like you suggested when that hand is moving and you are being driven at.

[RaceWithChyna]

@SnowflakeCity

If you shoot a tyre you don't know where the bullet might ricochet to. If you shoot an out of control person in the hand or arm you risk escalating the situation further because now you have a dangerous person even more pissed off because they have a bullet in them. It's also pretty difficult even for a skilled marksman to shoot someone in their hand for instance like you suggested when that hand is moving and you are being driven at.

Those were obviously suggestions given off of the top of my head. I’m not a trained arms officer so I don’t know how certain shots will impact the person. What I do know is, the officer could have shot to injure and not shot to kill, that’s a given.

I won’t even get onto the fact that he wasn’t even the person they were after. I’ll be willing to discuss this further after the trial. I’m interested to see if the officer will be found guilty of an offence

[loislovesstewie]

And really that is the point; we are not trained police firearms officers. We might think that we know what we would do or how we would do it, but we don't.

[LilyJessie]

@kateycuckoo

I'm so glad you were being ironic...
But I didn't read it like that.
My husband is too.

[RaceWithChyna]

@loislovesstewie

And really that is the point; we are not trained police firearms officers. We might think that we know what we would do or how we would do it, but we don't.

Not once did I say, ‘I would do etc.’ As you can see, I said ‘why shoot to kill and not shoot to injure?’ If the officer did absolutely nothing wrong then the CPS wouldn’t charge him with murder would they?

I’m not going back and forth with people who are defending the officer. We all have our opinions and if you want to defend the officer then that’s great! My post was to speak about the fact that a year later, there’s been some progress on the case. That’s all:)

[Whataretheodds]

I'd be really interested to know what the manual says the officer(s) should have done in this scenario.

Presumably if the shot was fired through the windscreen it would have been difficult from that angle to have shot a tyre instead, or to another part of the body.

Genuinely interested in what would have been the right outcome.