The family of an unarmed black man who was shot dead by police described how their "hearts were ripped out of their chest" by the killing.
Chris Kaba, 24, died after being pursued by officers on a residential street in south London and a post-mortem exam confirmed he suffered a bullet wound to the head.
Chris's cousin Jefferson Bosela, a teacher, told how he broke down in tears at the school where he worked.
He also slammed police after for taking 11 HOURS to inform his family that "larger than life" dad-to-be Chris was dead.
The Met Police today admitted there was a "delay" in informing his relatives.
Jefferson first learnt of the tragedy the morning after the shooting, when someone texted him an online report of the shooting and asked: "Chris?"
Chris's brother rushed to the hospital after hearing the news, but claims he was told the body was not there - when in fact it was.
Jefferson told the Mirror: “His mum was at work. She wasn't even at home when they got the visit.
“His dad was at home and they told dad what had happened. He died at midnight and they found out around 11am. 11 hours.
“It was such a long time and we don't know why it took that long for the parents to find out.
“His little brother went to the hospital in the morning. He went to King's College hospital and they said Chris wasn't there. Three hours later, they got confirmation from the police saying that Chris was there.
“Why was there that discrepancy between that first visit to the hospital and the police calling a few hours later?”
After a harrowing fortnight of events, delayed information and conflicting details, Jefferson said he was never going back to teaching and would instead focus on campaigning for Chris, who was expecting a baby girl and due to get married next January.
He said: “His mum and dad, they are just absolutely gutted. It's like you've ripped their hearts out right from their chest.
“Every time, I see his mum, she's just crying. She can't let go of the situation and how everything surfaced.
“I've told them, ‘you don't need to campaign. You sit down, you grieve. Me and the team will go fight for justice', and that's exactly what we've been doing.
“I'm going to go back and say bye to [the students] and tell them how much I'm going to miss them. I think they deserve that.”
Jefferson claimed the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had been "vague" and “inconsistent” in giving the family answers, and that campaigners had to “hound them” in order to get any.
He also claimed that two days after Chris was shot dead, the IOPC couldn’t tell the family if the car had been searched or not, and whether it was registered to him.
He said: “The first meeting we had we asked them, ‘has the car been searched?’.
“They said they don't know. I said, ‘how can you not know?'. He died on Monday night, so nearly two days after, and they still didn't know the car had been searched.”
Jefferson also claimed that they were subsequently told the vehicle was being forensically examined. Over a week later, they still hadn’t received the results.
He said: “We just literally had to coerce into making the call to find out. They came back and said, ‘you know what? The car has been searched but it's been sent off for forensic examination and you'll get the results later today'.
“That was Wednesday [last week]. Today, we still don't have the results of that forensic examination and they still haven't updated us on why they haven't given it to us yet.”
Almost a week after the shooting, the IOPC released a statement last Friday (September 9) revealing a homicide investigation had been launched, no gun was found and the vehicle had not been registered to Chris.
However, the officer who shot him was not suspended until three days after the announcement, which Jefferson said “raised eyebrows”.
Jefferson said: “He didn't get suspended quick enough. He got suspended on a Monday and the criminal investigation opened on a Friday.
“It's not theft. It's a homicide investigation. That’s probably the highest in terms of the degrees of things. That’s really serious.
“How did an immediate suspension not follow? You raise your eyebrows and think what's going on there.”
Chris’ family demanded to see the distressing footage of the moments that led to Chris being shot. They will view this next Wednesday, September 21.
Jefferson said they want to see it “with their own eyes” as the IOPC hasn’t been as “transparent.”
He said: “What else do we do? We need to see this with our own eyes. They don't want to explain to us what's really happened. They've been pretty vague. I want to see for myself.
“In the IOPC, some of them are former officers. How do you get people who are former officers to investigate the police? That doesn't make sense.
“There's going to be an inherent bias. You can't spend that much time in an organisation without having that sense of loyalty towards it. Especially if you enjoyed it.”
Jefferson said that “fast-tracking” the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would make "things smoother".
He said: “I think any fast track to the CPS for us will make it a much smoother process.
“The IOPC has historically been known for doing very slow investigations in which evidence has gone missing or evidence hasn't turned up or they find it years later and this is not going to be one of those cases.”
Chris’ family will be viewing the body today - something Jefferson said he wished he could delay.
He said: “We don't really talk about it. I don't want [the day] to come.
“When you know something is going to happen and you want distance, you don't want things to hurry up. That's going to be so difficult, especially for his parents.”
A spokesperson for Kings College Hospital said: “The hospital said it was unable to comment on individual cases for patient confidentiality reasons, but did say they didn’t feel there was confusion about the location of his body.
“The hospital added that they would be willing to meet with Chris’ family at an appropriate time, and also said their thoughts and sympathies are with them.”
A spokesperson for the IOPC said: “We’ve been in contact with Chris Kaba’s family’s legal representatives this week and have provided them with answers to a number of questions, including how we can facilitate their viewing of video footage.
“We are keeping in regular contact with his family and will update them as our investigation progresses.”
“Our decision to launch a criminal investigation was based on our review of the evidence which indicated a criminal offence may have been committed.”
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “It was an absolute priority to inform Mr Kaba’s family of the incident; we acknowledge there was a delay as we sought to locate them.
“Our thoughts and sympathies remain with them for their loss.”
