Marksman who fatally shot man faced ‘decade of legal madness’ – Sir Mark Rowley

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said a firearms officer who fatally shot a man during a foiled prison break had endured a “decade of legal madness”, after his misconduct hearing was discontinued.

The officer, known only as W80, shot Jermaine Baker as police stopped a plot to snatch two prisoners from a van near Wood Green Crown Court in December 2015.

The Metropolitan Police misconduct hearing at Palestra House was thrown out on Wednesday.

Sir Mark said W80 “should never have been put in this position”.

Margaret Smith, the mother of Mr Baker, said the decision to discontinue the misconduct hearing was “no surprise whatsoever”, adding there was “no justification for his death”.

Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, Sir Mark said: “Today’s outcome is the right one.

“It follows a criminal investigation and a public inquiry that both found W80 acted appropriately during a fast-moving police operation to stop a highly dangerous gang freeing the prisoner.

“W80 should never have been put in this position an astonishing 10 years after the incident of having to once again justify his actions to counter a very real threat that he believed that he and his colleagues faced that day.

“In a recent one-to-one meeting with W80, I was left both upset and angry to see the effect this decade of legal madness has had on him and on his family.”

Sir Mark added: “We must overhaul how policing decisions, which are taken in split seconds, are later reviewed with the benefit of hindsight on freeze-frame.

“Indeed, the current system allows criminals and their legal teams to weaponise those decisions against officers, undermining their confidence to pursue criminals or to use force.”

A rapid independent review examining the legal test for the use of force in misconduct cases was commissioned last year by the Government.

Sir Mark said: “I do hope that the Government will now meet their commitment to officers by publishing and acting upon the reviews, findings and recommendations without further delay.

“Until we have a more just and more timely system, it will continue to crush the spirit and confidence of good officers who go out there every day to police London and to keep us all safe.”

In a statement issued by Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, Ms Smith said: “Since the day almost 10 years ago that my son Jermaine was shot and killed by W80, the Metropolitan Police has taken every possible step to avoid their officer or their organisation from facing scrutiny and accountability for his death.

“That included going all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid W80 facing disciplinary proceedings.

“Against that background, my family and I never had any faith in this gross misconduct hearing, which was conducted by the Met Police; we did not attend the hearing, and the outcome today comes as no surprise whatsoever.

“We have heard the evidence about what happened to Jermaine and we know that there was no justification for his death.

“My family and I will remember Jermaine as the man we knew. The multiple legal processes we have had to endure over the last 10 years have prevented us grieving his loss.”

Chairman of the hearing panel Chris McKay said on Wednesday: “The decision of the panel is that we find there is no case for W80 to answer in these proceedings and accordingly the case against W80 is dismissed.

“The full reasons will follow as the rules provide in the next five working days.”

It comes after the panel retired on Tuesday to consider submissions of no case to answer made on behalf of officer W80 by Duncan Penny KC.

Mr McKay said it had been a “complex case” with more than 3,000 pages of documents placed before the panel.

He added that it was “important” for W80 and the family of Mr Baker to know the outcome as soon as possible.

Father-of-two Mr Baker, from Tottenham, north London, was shot at close range by counter-terrorism specialist firearms officer W80, who thought he was reaching for a gun.

Mr Baker, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of a stolen Audi A6, was unarmed and an imitation firearm was later found in the back of the Audi, the misconduct hearing previously heard.

The misconduct proceedings involving W80 began last week after years of legal battles over the case, in which he was accused of breaching professional standards over the use of force.

W80 was a counter-terrorism firearms officer in the “highest tier” of armed officers in the country and had been trained to carry a gun since 1998.

Prosecutors said in 2017 that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges over the shooting, but a police watchdog directed that the officer should face misconduct proceedings.

This sparked a lengthy legal battle between watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the officer, who was supported by the Met.

In 2023, the Supreme Court found in the IOPC’s favour, meaning the misconduct hearing would go ahead.

There was also a public inquiry into Mr Baker’s death, that concluded in 2022 that he had been lawfully killed.

Paula Dodds, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said officers must have “confidence that they have the legal protections needed to do the difficult and dangerous jobs society expects of them”.

Ms Dodds added: “The actions and arguments from the IOPC have been questionable from start to finish. We have to ask who holds them to account for putting a courageous colleague through the past 10 years of torment?”

IOPC director Amanda Rowe said the police accountability system was “open to legal challenges and lengthy delays that have a detrimental impact on the confidence of both the public and the police officers involved”.

Ms Rowe added: “We do not underestimate the impact these delays have had on Mr Baker’s family, the officer involved, and everyone affected.

“We have long called for a review of end-to-end processes and said that the complaints and disciplinary system need fundamental reform – to reduce complexity and delays and ensure the system carries the confidence of both the public and police.”

The police marksman who shot Chris Kaba still faces a disciplinary hearing and could be sacked.

Metropolitan Police officer Martyn Blake, 41, shot the 24-year-old in Streatham, south-east London, in September 2022 after Mr Kaba tried to ram his way past police cars that had hemmed him in.

He was cleared of murder over the shooting last October, but the IOPC said in April that he will still have to face gross misconduct proceedings.