The Public Prosecution announced on Wednesday that a policeman in London has been charged with the shooting death of a black young man a year ago in the south of the British capital.
The killing of an unarmed black young man, Chris Capa, in September 2022 led to several demonstrations demanding "justice" and sparked controversy over racism within the London police force, Scotland Yard.
The head of the Special Division at the Public Prosecution Service, Rosemary Ainslie, announced in a statement that after “careful consideration” of elements of the investigation conducted by the British police, “the Crown Prosecution Service authorized the prosecution of murder.”
The policeman, whose identity has not been revealed for legal reasons, is scheduled to appear before justice at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday.
On September 5, 2022, a policeman shot an unarmed young man, Chris Cappa (24 years old), inside his car in southwest London, while he was being pursued by a patrol. He died at night in hospital.
According to the “murder” investigation, a license plate camera monitored his car, and the monitoring program indicated that the car was linked to an incident involving firearms that had been recorded a few days earlier.
The policeman who fired the gun was suspended.
The Capa family said in a statement issued by the Enquest Association, which specializes in deaths related to the performance of state employees, that Chris Capa "had a bright future ahead of him, but his life is over."
Anita Sharma, an official in the association, noted that “Chris was an unarmed black man who was shot in the head in the streets of London,” and recalled the concern raised by the young man’s death, which “once again revealed the racism and violence” of the security services.
It is rare for a policeman to be prosecuted for murder in England.
According to the organization, 1,870 deaths have been recorded since 1990 during or after police custody or contact with them. It has only resulted in one conviction: when a policeman was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2021, for manslaughter, after a prosecution that was initially charged with murder was reclassified.
Police officer Benjamin Monk was charged with the murder of former footballer Dalian Atkinson, who was killed in 2016 after the police officer electrocuted him three times with a Taser gun, one of which lasted 33 seconds, and kicked him twice in the head.
Scotland Yard is facing a crisis of public confidence, after a series of crimes committed by police officers, including the rape and murder of a 33-year-old woman in March 2021.
