Gangsters put a £10,000 bounty on the head of a police marksman after he shot dead Chris Kaba, it can be revealed today.
Martyn Blake is having to live in hiding, fearing for his life and his family after a £10,000 reward was offered to anyone prepared to kill him in revenge for the death of Mr Kaba.
Now it can be revealed that Mr Kaba was one of London‘s most feared gangsters with a shocking history of violence.
Yesterday Sergeant Blake was dramatically cleared of murder after shooting the 24-year-old fleeing motorist to prevent him running over other officers.
But the full circumstances behind the case could not be revealed after Mr Justice Goss imposed reporting restrictions on the trial.
Chris Kaba was shot through the windscreen of a car in South London on September 5, 2022
The fatal shooting on September 5, 2022 happened after armed police started tailing the vehicle that Mr Kaba was driving because the Audi Q8 had been used as a getaway car in a gang-related shooting the night before in Brixton, South London.
When police boxed in the vehicle in a residential street in Streatham, Mr Kaba used the car as a ‘battering ram’ revving back and forth in the high-powered Audi almost dragging the ten officers surrounding him under the wheels before Sergeant Blake finally ended the rampage by shooting the driver.
This morning the Old Bailey judge finally lifted an order banning the media from disclosing his Mr Kaba’s involvement in multiple shootings across the capital.
Now it can be disclosed that the 24-year-old motorist was high on cocaine that night and still had gun residue on his sleeve and a balaclava in his car, providing ‘strong evidence’ that Mr Kaba had carried out the Brixton shooting the night before, Mr Blake’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs, KC, said.
He was a leading member of the 67 gang, which police consider the most dangerous gang in South London,
Just six days before his death, Mr Kaba brazenly gunned down a rival in the middle of a crowded nightclub during a bloody feud for control of a profitable county lines drug network.
In a shocking attack captured on CCTV, the gangster started blasting at Brandon Malutshi chasing him outside the Oval Space Club in Hackney, with one of the bullets hitting him in the leg.
Had he not been killed, Mr Kaba would have stood trial at the Old Bailey for the attempted murder of Mr Malutshi who miraculously survived the nightclub shooting on August 30, 2022.
His accomplices were later convicted for their role in the shooting during a trial held in secret to avoid any prejudge to jurors in the Blake case.
CCTV footage showed Kaba spotting his rival at the club on the evening of August 30, 2022, before grabbing a bag from a friend, pulling on a single black glove then covering his face.
He then snatched the pistol from the bag and fired across the dancefloor at Malutshi, who sprinted away.
Kaba chased him and fired a volley of bullets at his target, hitting him in the leg just below the buttock.
People demonstrate outside the Old Bailey in London last night after the not guilty verdict
Mr Malutshi, a member of the ’17’ gang was flown by air ambulance to the Royal London Hospital and survived the shooting, eventually discharging himself against medical advice with a small bullet fragment still in his right leg.
Kaba’s associates, Shemiah Bell and Marcus Pottinger, both 31, were found guilty of wounding with intent in February while Connel Bamgboye, 29, was convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
But it was Kaba who had pulled the trigger as part of a vicious war for control over a ‘county lines’ drug dealing network which raged between the two gangs.
Nicknamed ‘Mad Itch’, Kaba had a shocking history of violence, with convictions dating back to the age of 13 for affray, knifes and weapons possession relating to several shootings.
Jurors were told merely that the victim was an expectant father.
But even that carefully constructed image crumbled in legal argument behind closed doors when it emerged that he had been barred from contacting the mother of his unborn child under a domestic violence protection order.
So entangled was he in the perpetual bloodshed of London’s gang wars that the night Kaba was killed was not even the first time he had been shot.
He was first struck by a bullet during a clash between two rival groups in 2014.
Kaba revelled in the violence, releasing drill rap songs bragging about gunning down rivals and selling drugs.
In 2017 Kaba and his Mobo-nominated ’67 rap group’ were hosted by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood for a studio ‘crib session’ after he released a single bragging about travelling with ‘the shotty’, said to be a reference to blasting someone in the face with a shotgun.
Photographs on social media show Kaba making various gun gestures and taking aim at the camera as if he had a shotgun in hand.
Just five months later Kaba was caught up in a shooting in Canning Town in December 2017, which led to a four year jail sentence for possession of a firearm.
But he was back on the streets within a year after being relased early on licence.
In August 2020, Kaba was jailed again for possession of a knife and failing to stop for police.
Chris Kaba is seen sat inside an Audi Q8 in Streatham, South London, on September 5, 2022
The police bodycam footage from multiple angles shows chaotic scenes as Mr Kaba was shot
Mr Kaba’s vehicle was hemmed in by marked and unmarked police cars during the incident
A shot is heard in the video before someone shouts ‘right we’ve got shots fired, shots fired’
The footage shows armed officers running towards Mr Kaba’s car which was hemmed in
Mr Gibbs described his notorious 67 clan as the ‘most dangerous gang in south London.’
A Met police report in 2023 revealed 67’s turf warfare had ‘encompassed numerous firearms discharges, stabbings and murders’ which have ‘played out in gang related musical content since 2014.’
Described as ‘the highest harm street gang in Lambeth’, members were said to be ’embedded in a culture of drug supply, serious violence firearms and knife possession’ whose ‘brand and status depends on advertising their violent exploits in the form of shootings or stabbings’.
But Mr Justice Goss ruled that details should be kept from the jury as Blake didn’t know it was Kaba behind the wheel when he opened fire that night.
The judge added: ‘Mr Kaba is not on trial here.’
The ruling meant jurors failed to comprehend why the driver was so desperate to escape that night.
Kaba may have known it was risky to use the Audi as it had previously been flagged to police as associated with a double shooting in Bromley in May 2022.
The details were disclosed to Kaba after a gang order was taken out against him.
But he and his thuggish followers appear to have had little fear of being caught.
Indeed, his death appears only to have heightened their lust for bloodshed and revenge.
A grab from footage issued by the CPS of the initial follow of the Audi driven by Chris Kaba
It emerged in a pre-trial hearing that ‘those linked to the 67 Gang were seeking to kill a police officer in retribution for Mr Kaba’s death’.
Mr Gibbs cited an intelligence report revealing: ‘The sum of money on offer was £10,000….in exchange for personal details of Martyn Blake including addresses and vehicle registration marks.
‘The threat of harm was directed at both Mr Blake and his family’.
The report concluded that ‘the likelihood of consequences following the identification of the officer is very high. The threat to the officer and their family in the event they are identified is very high.’
Superintendent Ross McKibbin, head of Counter Terrorism in the Met said: ‘In nearly 30 years of service, I have never been more concerned about the welfare of an officer or the likelihood of them or their family coming to serious harm as I am about Martyn Blake in this case.’
The threat of a revenge attack remains so high that Blake has had his leave his home, career and normal life behind as he faces a lifetime under threat with close protection officers guarding his every move.
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
A photo issued by the CPS of the blue Audi Q8, the vehicle Chris Kaba was in when he died
Today a firearms officer, who was at the scene of the fatal police shooting, said it was wrong to prosecute Mr Blake arguing ‘at no point was there any evidence that (he) had done anything wrong’.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘I believe (it was wrong to go to court). I believe that at no point was there any evidence that Martyn Blake had done anything wrong or at least deviated from his training or indeed the law.
‘Martyn is the most professional, assiduous, diligent police officer you will come across and he should never have been put in this position. He was on Kirkstall Gardens that night on behalf of the state.
‘The state put Martyn Blake there that night and the state trained him to do the fearsome thing that he had to do and he should never have been named in the media. That’s my personal opinion.’
He added: ‘There’s a problem when police officers are scrutinised by people who don’t necessarily understand the pressures and the issues involved.
‘I’m no legal expert but I do wonder whether there’s something maybe akin to the court-martial system that we see in the military which would be a better fit for incidents like this, where we have a panel of legal experts, a panel of subject-matter experts who can call on witnesses from the incident itself, can call on further witnesses in a particular area to bring their expertise to bear and that we can seek a judicial outcome from that.’
