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Hundreds of London police officers began refusing to patrol with firearms on Sunday after an officer was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old Black man. The unusual shooting – and subsequent charge – are exacerbating a public crisis of confidence in London’s police force.
Up to 300 specialist firearms officers handed in their permits allowing them to carry guns on duty over the weekend, according to the BBC.
The protest comes as an officer, named only as NX121, was charged with murder last week over the death of 24-year-old Chris Kaba in September 2022.
Kaba was killed with a single shot to the head while driving a vehicle on a residential street in Streatham, south London.
The unarmed father-to-be was not a suspect in police investigations, but was driving a car “believed to be linked to a firearms incident which took place the previous day”, lead investigator Dean Brown, of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, told an inquest into Kaba’s death in October 2022.
Officer NX121 was suspended from duty after the incident. But it was his sentencing last week on a murder charge that has sparked indignation among other officers.
“Many are worried about how the decision impacts on them, on their colleagues and on their families,” said a spokesman for the London Metropolitan Police (the Met).
“They are concerned that it signals a shift in the way the decisions they make in the most challenging circumstances will be judged,” he added.
Trust in police ‘hangs by a thread’
Kaba’s family welcomed the decision to charge the officer, saying they and the wider community needed to “see justice for Chris”.
His death, which sparked protests outside the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters, comes amid a public crisis of confidence in London’s police force.
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