Homicide investigation launched into rapper Chris Kaba’s death

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched a homicide investigation into the death of London rapper Chris Kaba after being shot by an armed Metropolitan Police officer last week. 

IPOC has confirmed that no firearms were found in the vehicle that Kaba, who was 24 and a member of the drill group 67, was driving in Streatham Hill, the Guardian reports. The Met police officer who fired the fatal shot has since been suspended from “frontline duties”.

Police pursued Kaba on Monday night, 5th September, after the license plate of the car he was driving activated “an automatic number plate recognition camera which indicated the vehicle was linked to a firearms incident in previous days,” the IPOC said. “The vehicle Mr Kaba was driving was not registered to him.” The pursuit ended with a police car ramming into Kaba’s car, while another boxed him in. An armed Met officer fired one fatal shot through the driver’s-side windscreen. 

“As this is now a criminal investigation, we are limited in what further information we can provide,” the IPOC said. “The launch of a criminal investigation does not mean that criminal charges will necessarily follow.”

Kaba’s family had previously released a statement urging the IPOC to investigate Kaba’s death. It reads: “The family of Chris Kaba seek a homicide investigation into his death from the outset. We have today told the IOPC of that demand and that we do not want any delay as has happened in other fatal shootings — otherwise we and the wider public can have no confidence that the police will be held to account. We are devastated; we need answers and we need accountability. We are worried that if Chris had not been Black, he would have been arrested on Monday evening and not had his life cut short.”

The expected timeline of the IPOC’s homicide investigation is unknown. 

Kaba performed under the names Madix, Mad Itch and Itch, and had previously received a MOBO award nomination. He was engaged to be married to his partner who is pregnant with their child.