Metropolitan gun officials may be fired after shooting death gangsters in prison escape
A Metropolitan Police gun official faces a sack after shooting a gangster in an attempted escape.
The official, known only as codenamed “W80”, shot and killed 28-year-old Jermaine Baker in a dramatic intelligence-led operation in December 2015.
The professional crime baker has planned to withdraw two offenders from Wood Green Crown Court in north London.
Now, nearly a decade later, the W80 was dragged in front of the October discipline team and could be dismissed if convicted of serious misconduct.
The move comes after a ruling from the Independent Office of Conduct for Police (IOPC), which also ordered a serious misconduct hearing on Sgt. Martyn Blake earlier this month – gun officials recently cleared another high-profile shooting murder of gangster Chris Kaba.
When the government conducts a major review of police accountability, it may change the way armed personnel are reviewed.
Baker was shot dead in the plan to commit a gang that broke the jailbreak.
According to officials, the operation is intended to prevent “dangerous criminals” from being detained.
The standard procedure after the police shootings, the case was referred to the watchdog. Just five days later, the W80 was suspended.
The official is known only for codenamed “W80” and shot and killed 28-year-old Jermaine Baker in a December 2015 operation led by dramatic intelligence
2015 Wood Green North London scene official after Jermaine Baker’s death
By 2016, the former of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IOPC) concluded that the official had a case to answer his use of deadly force.
Prosecutors believed the murder was infringed, but the Crown Prosecutor’s Office (CPS) decided not to proceed in 2017, and the W80 was restored.
Then in 2018, the IOPC once again directed MET to start disciplinary action, a move that sparked a lasting legal battle. The Scottish yard pushed back, but the case climbed the legal ladder and eventually reached the Supreme Court.
In a landmark ruling last July, the judge supported the IOPC and again ordered the W80 to face a hearing on misconduct.
A separate investigation into the shooting concluded that Baker was “legally killed” and found that W80 was fired because he “honestly believed he posed a fatal threat.”
Now, a two-week misconduct hearing will begin on October 6, just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the shooting.
In another case, Sgt Blake shot Chris Kaba in 2022 when the gang allegedly tried to hit a police barricade and was murdered in October without charge by an old Bailey jury in just three hours.
Officials have been delaying the “core members” of one of the most dangerous gangs in the capital after linking Audi to the gang shooting the night before.
Mr. Blake told jurors how he was worried about his colleagues being knocked down as the thug used his car as a “beating ram” in an attempt to force his own road between a police car and a Tesla parked nearby.
After a quick acquittal in October last year, the Metropolitan argued that the evidence against him had been “a lot of tests” and called on the Independent Office (IOPC) regulator to exempt the officer from misconduct procedures.
However, IOPC insists that he faces the misconduct panel. The date has not been set yet.
The delay in handling such high-risk cases is to undermine morale and prevent officials from signing gun roles, campaigners say.
A separate public investigation into the shooting concluded that Baker was “legally killed” and found W80 fired because he “honestly believed he posed a fatal threat”
Baker has been trying to help his friend escape the worm scrub
Mark Williams, CEO of the Association of Police Gun Officials charity, slammed nearly a decade of suffering W80.
He told the Telegraph: “We found another police gun official and his family went through a lasting investigation because the W80 has been around for ten years now. This has to stop.”
“We welcome the Home Office’s accountability review and provide evidence of significant welfare impacts on officials and their families.
“If we are to encourage men and women to become armed policing, which is crucial to the security of our country, we must take common sense in these situations.
“Those who investigate these incidents must respect the influence of officials and their families for so long. Sadly, this seems to be unthinkable.
A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed: “The date of the misconduct hearing for the gun officer W80 has been determined. It will be held between Monday and Friday, October 6.
“The hearing is led by an independent and legal chair and the police team members will come from another unit.”
IOPC has been contacted for comment.
