Leader of inquiry into police shooting of Chris Kaba was warned of rioting had his team not probed it as homicide

THE leader of the inquiry into the police shooting of Chris Kaba was warned of rioting had his team not probed it as a homicide.

An Old Bailey jury last month cleared Met firearms cop Martyn Blake of the 24-year-old gangster’s murder.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct and prosecution chiefs were accused of scapegoating the officer to ease community tensions over the incident in 2022.

Kaba was shot in the head through the windscreen of his car, which he had used to try to ram his way out of a police roadblock in Streatham, South London.

The IOPC launched a homicide inquiry and Sal Naseem, the watchdog’s former London regional director, said the investigation team were later told trouble would have flared had they not done so.

Mr Naseem told BBC1’s Panorama: “It was fed back to us . . . that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder.

“Things were on a knife edge.”

The IOPC has denied its investigation was influenced by outside pressures.

PA

The leader of the inquiry into the police shooting of Chris Kaba was warned of rioting had his team not probed it as a homicide[/caption]