Leading former senior police officers have added to growing anger over why a police marksman was charged with gangster Chris Kabas murder and could yet face the sack despite being acquitted.
Lord Blair, who was Scotland Yard chief commissioner between 2005 and 2008, has questioned why Sergeant Martyn Blake was ever prosecuted over the alleged offence - after the officer was found not guilty on Monday.
Colleagues of Mr Blake, 40, are said to remain astonished that he ever faced charges over the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Mr Kaba in Streatham, south London, on September 5 2022.
And Neil Basu, a former head of UK counter-terrorism, criticised the prospect of disciplinary proceedings that could still lose Mr Blake his job.
He also warned armed officers were saying they no longer want to carry their weapons for fear of facing similar prosecutions.
Footage from bodyworn police cameras showed the moment 24-year-old Chris Kabas car was surrounded by armed police in Streatham, south London, on September 5 2022
Chris Kabas rap name was Mad Itch or Itch and he released drill rap songs bragging about gunning down rivals and selling drugs. A still from one of his videos is pictured above
CCTV footage captured the aftermath of Chris Kabas shooting attack on gang rival Brandon Malutshi, in Hackney, east London, six days before he himself was fired on by police
And Lord Blair said that if the sergeant had been convicted of murder, it would have been difficult to imagine Scotland Yard continuing to deploy armed police.
After Mr Blakes acquittal at the Old Bailey, it was revealed this week that gangsters have put a £10,000 bounty on his head and the officer is having to live in hiding.
He had shot Mr Kaba, who was fleeing a police chase in an Audi Q8, to prevent him from running over other officers, the trial heard.
Mr Blake will be immediately reinstated to his job but will need to undergo refresher training before being deployed operationally.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog will decide whether he should face disciplinary proceedings.
In a letter to the Times today, Lord Blair wrote: What I do not understand is why the prosecution for murder was brought.
Had the officer been convicted, it is difficult to imagine how the Met could have continued to deploy armed officers to deal with the type of difficult circumstances that unfolded that evening in Streatham.
He described how the tactics used in the Streatham police operation would have been an inline extraction - that is, a highly organised stop involving a number of police cars containing armed officers, briefed and supervised by a senior officer and filmed from a police helicopter.
Chris Kaba was shot through the windscreen of a car in South London on September 5, 2022 - armed police officer Martyn Blake was charged with his murder but acquitted this week
Lord Blair added: After the death, what needed to be tested were those tactics, not the actions of the individual officer, unless he had egregiously departed from his training, which does not appear to have been alleged.
A fellow firearms officer who was at the scene on the night Mr Kaba died yesterday told Radio 4s Today programme at no point was there any evidence that (Mr Blake) had done anything wrong.
The former marksman called for police officers who take fatal shots to face court martial-style hearings rather than jury trials.
He added: Theres a problem when police officers are scrutinised by people who dont necessarily understand the pressures and the issues involved.
And Mr Basu, a former assistant commissioner of the Met, this morning spoke of his misgivings about the case - as well as what he called the second bite of the cherry which puts Mr Blake potentially facing a gross misconduct inquiry.
He told the Today programme this morning: If a police officer acts unlawfully then, just like any other member of the public, then yes [they should be prosecuted].
But in circumstances where they have been asked to do their job, the hardest job in policing – to potentially put their life on offer or to take a life – and they are adhering to their training, no, they shouldnt be prosecuted. Thats not an unlawful act.
Theres much more complexity to it than that and clearly lawyers have to look at the evidence, but I was surprised that the IOPC made such a quick decision to announce it as a murder inquiry.
Armed police had started tailing the vehicle that Mr Kaba was driving because the Audi Q8 had been used as a getaway car
Chris Kaba was one of Londons most feared gangsters with a shocking history of violence
I would want, as a former police officer, to know why that was made so swiftly, and I was surprised by the charging decision.
Now clearly there is a lack of faith in that decision. I know those prosecutors well. Theyre normally very good, so Im not second guessing theyve done, but somebody probably needs to indicate the reason that decision was made.
He also warned of potential knock-on effects on police morale, adding: Weve seen when the decision was made to charge, the reaction of armed police officers – some no longer wanting to carry weapons.
There is a very fine balance here about this criminal justice system to try and find some faith and confidence in the system on both sides.
But having a second process at a lower standard of proof, to try and find gross misconduct against an officer who has been acquitted and not seen to have acted unlawfully is going to appear to police officers as grossly unfair.
Neither side at this time seems to have faith in the criminal justice system. That is a serious problem for the Home Secretary, its a serious problem for the most serious police officer in the country and his colleagues.
An independent review of the decision-making in this system and how the process of holding the police to account works, that is open to both sides, would be incredibly important in this case.
Current Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is among the policing leaders to have called the current accountability system broken and expressed concerns it might lead to a loss of morale among firearms officers.
Chris Kaba is seen sat inside an Audi Q8 in Streatham, South London, on September 5, 2022
A computer generated image issued by the Crown Prosecution Service of a reconstruction shown to the court at the Old Bailey of the position of two firearms officers in front of the Audi
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will revive and complete a probe into how firearms police officers who take fatal shots in the line of duty are held to account.
Suella Braverman pledged to review the ways that firearms officers who take fatal shots are held accountable when she was Home Secretary in 2023.
Plans to give swifter decisions to suspended officers and more clarity to victims were among the changes touted by the previous government, while Tory ministers also considered raising the threshold for referring firearms officers for prosecution.
Speaking on the way to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa, Sir Keir told reporters: We are going to pick that up and complete that accountability review because it is important that the public have confidence in the police including of course the armed police.
The Prime Minister added: Its also important that the police know that we have confidence in them doing a very difficult job so we will pick that up.
The Conservatives former Justice Secretary Alex Chalk today told LBC: You cannot have a situation where decent, hardworking, conscientious police officers say, "You know what, I dont want to serve as a police officer because there’s too much jeopardy that Im going to be gripping the rail at the Old Bailey if something goes wrong and I do my reasonable best".
As ever, the devil is in the detail. What you dont want is to swing the pendulum so far the other way that the message goes out there on the streets of London that these guys have got a licence to kill. No one wants that, of course.
Mr Kaba was unarmed when Mr Blake shot him through the windscreen of an Audi Q8 as he tried to ram his way past police cars on September 5 2022.
Former senior Metropolitan Police officers Lord Blair (left) and Neil Basu (right) have today criticised the decision to charge Martyn Blake, now acquitted, with Chris Basus murder
Forensics officers at the shooting scene in Streatham, South London, on September 6, 2022
Had he not been killed, Mr Kaba would have stood trial at the Old Bailey for the attempted murder of Brandon Malutshi who survived a nightclub shooting on August 30, 2022
But he was a core member of one of Londons most dangerous criminal gangs and was allegedly directly linked to two shootings in the six days before he was shot dead by police, a court revealed to the public after lifting reporting restrictions.
In August 2020, Mr Kaba was jailed for five months for the possession of a knife and failing to stop.
Before that, he served a four-year prison term for possession of an imitation firearm for which he was convicted in December 2017.
An application for a gang order against Mr Kaba was also under way at the time of his death, the court was told.