A Metropolitan Police firearms officer is facing the sack almost ten years after shooting dead a gangster during an attempted prison break.
The officer, known only by the codename ‘W80’, gunned down Jermaine Baker, 28, during a dramatic intelligence-led operation in December 2015.
Career criminal Baker had plotted to break two convicts out of Wood Green Crown Court in north London.
Now, nearly a decade later, W80 is being hauled before a disciplinary panel in October and could be dismissed from the force if found guilty of gross misconduct.
The move follows a ruling from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which earlier this month also ordered a gross misconduct hearing for Sergeant Martyn Blake – the firearms officer recently cleared of murdering gangster Chris Kaba in another high-profile shooting.
It comes as the Government conducts a major review of police accountability, potentially changing how armed officers are scrutinised.
Baker was fatally shot during a planned armed swoop on a gang attempting a prison breakout.
According to officials, the operation was designed to prevent a ‘dangerous criminal’ being sprung from custody.
As is standard procedure after a police shooting, the case was referred to the watchdog. Just five days later, W80 was suspended.
The officer, known only by the codename ‘W80’, gunned down Jermaine Baker, 28, (above) during a dramatic intelligence-led operation in December 2015
Officers at the scene in Bracknell Close, Wood Green north London in 2015 after Jermaine Baker died
By 2016, the Independent Police Complaints Commission – the IOPC’s predecessor – concluded the officer had a case to answer over his use of lethal force.
Prosecutors considered murder charges but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided in 2017 not to proceed, and W80 was reinstated.
Then in 2018, the IOPC again directed the Met to begin disciplinary proceedings — a move that triggered a protracted legal battle. Scotland Yard pushed back, but the case climbed the legal ladder, eventually reaching the Supreme Court.
In a landmark ruling last July, judges sided with the IOPC, and once again ordered that W80 face a misconduct hearing.
A separate public inquiry into the shooting concluded Baker was ‘lawfully killed’ and found that W80 fired because he ‘honestly believed he posed a lethal threat’.
Now, a two-week gross misconduct hearing is due to begin on October 6, just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the shooting.
In a separate case, Sgt Blake, who shot Chris Kaba in 2022 when the gangster allegedly tried to ram a police roadblock, was acquitted of murder in just three hours by an Old Bailey jury last October.
Officers had been tailing Mr Kaba, a ‘core member’ of one of the capital’s most dangerous gangs, after linking his Audi to a gangland shooting the previous evening.
Mr Blake told jurors how he feared his colleagues would be run over as the thug used his car as a ‘battering ram’ to try and force his way between a police car and a Tesla parked nearby.
After his swift acquittal last October, the Met argued the evidence against him had been ‘tested significantly’ and called on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog to spare the officer from misconduct proceedings.
Yet the IOPC has insisted he face a misconduct panel. A date is yet to be set.
Campaigners say the delays in dealing with such high-stakes cases are damaging morale and discouraging officers from signing up to firearms roles.
A separate public inquiry into the shooting concluded Baker was ‘lawfully killed’ and found that W80 fired because he ‘honestly believed he posed a lethal threat’
Wormwood Scrubs where Baker had been trying to help his friends escape from
Mark Williams, CEO of the Police Firearms Officers Association charity, slammed the near ten-year ordeal W80 has endured.
He told the Telegraph: ‘Yet again we find a police firearms officer and his family enduring a protracted investigation, for W80 this is now ten years. This has to stop.
‘We welcome the Home Office accountability review, and have provided evidence of the significant welfare impacts on officers and their families.
‘Common sense must prevail in these situations if we are to encourage men and women to become and remain within armed policing, which is vital to the security of our country.
‘Those investigating these incidents must respect the impact on officers and their families when they go on for so long. Sadly, it does not appear this is a consideration.’
A Scotland Yard spokesperson confirmed: ‘A date has been set for a misconduct hearing for firearms officer W80. It will take place between Monday 6 and Friday 17 October.
‘The hearing will be led by an independent legally qualified chair, and the police panel member will be from another force.’
The IOPC has been approached for comment.
