Who was Chris Kaba? Protests erupt after unarmed rapper is shot dead by police in London 

Aspiring rapper Chris Kaba was shot and killed by police officers in the UK on Monday, September 5, 2022. Officers pursued the 24-year-old after an automatic license plate camera indicated that the vehicle he was driving was recently linked to an armed incident. The family of the up-and-coming rapper has now called for a formal homicide investigation into his death.

The young father-to-be died after police chased his car. The rapper was killed with a single shot which entered through the diver’s side of the Audi, which he was driving. Since Chris Kaba’s death, the Independent Office for Police Conduct has announced that no “non-police issue firearm” was found at the scene of Kaba’s death.

Following his death, hundreds of people stood up to protest in Brixton on Thursday, September 8, 2022. Meanwhile, the rapper’s family put out a statement saying that Chris Kaba would not have died if not for his skin color. The statement read:

“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.”

During a UK demonstration held in Ritzy, flyers saying that the police killed Chris Kaba took over the streets. A few of them read:

“Peaceful protest for Chris Kaba. An unarmed young black man who was a father to be was murdered in cold blood by our police force… We demand answers… Brixton police station, everyone pull up.”

His father, Prosper Kaba, also said in an interview with the BBC:

“For us, it is totally racist and criminal and we want all the community, especially the minority community, to see this as racism.”

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Chris Kaba was a member of the drill group 67

Chris Kaba was popularly known as Madix or Mad Itch 67 in UK’s music industry. He was a member of the drill group 67, who have previously been nominated for a MOBO award. According to 18 Live News, the rapper pursued a career in the entertainment industry alongside being a professional coach.

67 has accumulated over 107k subscribers on their official YouTube page. According to 18 Live News, the rapper is worth approximately three million dollars.

The rapper was engaged to Karima Waite, the daughter of Kim Alleyne. The couple was expecting a child together at the time of his death. Speaking about his passing, Alleyne said in an interview:

“He was a fiancé, he was due to get married in five months' time. He's got a baby on the way that he's never going to see. It's horrible and so shocking and so sad.”

Chris Kaba’s cousin Jefferson Bosela described the former as a “loving, good person” in an interview with the BBC. He added:

“I've put it out there he wasn't perfect, but regardless of that nobody deserves to be killed by the police unless there is an imminent or direct threat to the public, which at that moment in time, from what I'm hearing, he was not."

Since his death, the IOPC has announced that they are “working hard to piece together all of the circumstances surround this incident.” They also informed their followers that it will “take some time before our investigation is able to uncover all the facts.”

Kaba’s vehicle has since been sent for forensic examination. Further details about his passing are yet to be uncovered.