Chris Kaba is a leading member of a notorious South London gang, accused of attempted murder of a nightclub rival who opened fire days before the murder.
Following the acquittal of Metropolitan police sniper Martin Blake on murder charges and Judge Goss lifting press restrictions, the 24-year-old’s gang connections, criminal history and violent past have been made public for the first time.
In the early hours of 30 August 2022, Kaba, 24, opened fire on the dance floor and outside the street at the Oval Space in Hackney, east London, shooting Brandon Maltosi twice in the leg with a revolver. The victim tried to flee.
Kaba, known by the street name “Itch”, was shot in the head by Blake, 40, on the night of 5 September 2022, when he arrived at the scene in the same Audi Q8 he was driving. Fleeing from police in Streatham, south London.
The same vehicle is also linked to a shooting in Bromley, south-east London, on May 22, 2022, when two people were attacked with a shotgun, the Old Bailey heard in a closed jury hearing at Mr Blake’s murder trial.
Jurors were told that three masked men fired a shotgun twice at an unknown target outside a school in Brixton and that the Audi was also used as one of two getaway vehicles the night before Mr Hippo was killed.
However, they were unaware that Hippo had a balaclava in his pocket and bullet holes in his sleeve at the time of the shooting, although the prosecutor suspected these might have been the work of one of the weapons officers.
No weapons were found in the Audi, which was not registered to Hippo, despite being one of the known drivers.
A handgun was discovered by a cleaner behind a trash bin at a property along the route he took before the killing on 14 September 2022, but the murder weapon is not believed to be linked to the incident.
Mr Kaba was due to have a civil court hearing 10 days after his death, where police were expected to apply for a gang injunction, which aims to impose restrictions on people involved in gang violence.
He was previously the subject of a provisional arrest warrant, but it expired while he was serving time for other convictions.
67 Gang
Mr Blake’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs KC had argued that evidence of Mr Kaba’s “bad character” should be presented to the jury in the murder trial.
However, the judge dismissed this request as irrelevant to the facts of the case, as the police officers did not know that Kaba was driving the car, only that it was connected to the shooting the previous night.
The judge also rejected a request on behalf of Mr Kaba’s mother to extend the press restrictions beyond the end of the trial.
Gibbs described Kaba as a “ringleader” of Gang 67, based in Brixton Hill. The gang has more than 50 known members.
Police reports submitted to the court as part of an attempt to protect the anonymity of the officers, formerly known as NX121, described the group as an “identifiable street gang”.
The gang is engaged in “active and violent feuds with rival street gangs” involving “numerous shootings, stabbings and murders” and has been playing out in gang-related music since 2014, the paper said.
Kaba had appeared in drill rap videos with other members of Gang 67 on the internet.
Its members are “embedded in a culture of drug dealing, serious violence and the possession of firearms and knives” and are part of “Lambeth’s most dangerous street gang”, the report said.
Gibbs said there was specific information to suggest Blake’s life was in danger as gang members may try to identify and kill him in retaliation for the shooting of Kaba.
Previous convictions
Kaba has convictions since the age of 13 for offences including stabbing with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, gang assault with a knife in which the victim was stabbed and suffered a broken arm, and two other knife offences.
In 2015, at the age of 17, Kaba was convicted of assault and possession of an offensive weapon, a belt, after a revolver was found nearby. However, the gun was not linked to him and he was never charged with the gun.
He was convicted of possession of an imitation firearm in 2017 and sentenced to four years in prison. In August 2020 he was sentenced to five months in prison for failing to stop and possessing a knife thrown from a car.
Attempted murder trial
If Kaba had not been killed, he would have been on trial with six others for the attempted murder of Maltosi, who was part of gang 1-7, based in Wandsworth Road.
His name was included in the indictment at the Old Bailey trial earlier this year, where it was agreed as a fact that Kaba was a “leading member” of the 67 gang, but he could not subsequently speak about his role in the attack. The Notting Hill carnival will not be covered by press until after Mr Blake’s trial.
Witnesses said the balaclava-wearing Kaba was “completely delirious” when he identified his “operation” before Marcus Pottinger produced a pistol from a bag he had smuggled into the club.
Mr Martosi was shot on the crowded dance floor and then again as Kaba chased him down a side street, suffering wounds in both thighs.
Having been found guilty of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and possessing a firearm to cause fear of violence, Bell was jailed for 10 years and Pottinger for nine years.
Sentencing them, Judge Simon Mayo KC said: “After Kabba spotted Maltosi at the nightclub he confronted him and ‘C Rose’ or ‘Cons’ passports were found in the Audi on the night Kabba was shot and he was sentenced to five and a half years for the weapons offences.
Mr Bangboye was also stopped by armed police in his Audi in the first half of 2022 and was convicted along with Mr Kabba in 2015 for a brawl involving nine men. The pair were then involved in a gang altercation at an unlicensed music event in Romford, the court heard.
An altercation broke out and Kaba was stabbed in the abdomen and Bamboy and another man were wounded in the gunfight.
“He should never have been tried.”
Before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict after about four hours of deliberations on Monday, the jury handed the judge a note requesting permission to comment on any denials.
But Judge Goss refused a media request to release the notes. The application was supported by the Cabas family’s lawyer.
Matt Cain, general secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file police officers, said Blake “should never have been put on trial” and that his colleagues “remain astonished that a brave colleague could be charged with murder”.
“The impact of this case continues to be far-reaching. Police officers should not put their lives and freedoms at risk simply because, in this case, they are clearly carrying out their lawful and proper duties,” he said.
“It remains deeply disturbing that the investigation of the most serious, complex and dynamic operational scenarios such as this one is being conducted by people with little or no experience of police work and who appear to have no understanding whatsoever of these types of fast-paced cases and incidents,” he said. “They have to use dangerous, trained operational tactics, make split-second decisions under the most difficult and challenging circumstances.”
“Flaws in such investigations are compounded by poor decisions by prosecutors and others.”