Police officer who shot gang member gets career boost after court verdict
A London police officer cleared in a shooting case is moving up the ranks. The decision comes after a quick jury verdict last month that found him not-guilty in a high-profile incident
Martyn Blake‚ a firearms unit sergeant whose career was on-hold is now set for an inspector role after being cleared in a shooting case. The 40-year old officer (who passed his inspectorʼs exam before the incident) might get re-assigned to a different Met Police department
The case stems from a 2022 incident when Blake shot Chris Kaba – a 24-year old linked to the “67 Gang“ in south london. The shooting happened when Kaba tried to escape in an Audi that was connected to two gang-related shootouts; the officer fired through the cars windscreen
This shows the Mets confidence in the officer and reinforces the commissioners support in him
The married father-of-two was suspended for bout 2 years but got cleared of murder charges by a jury that took just three hours to decide. Even though theres a pending misconduct review its not likely to affect his promotion
The Met Police kept its distance from promotion talks saying: “Any query of this nature relates to personal information about an officers career intentions and is not something wed discuss“ They also added that Blake has the same right to privacy as other officers
