unsolved-murders.co.uk
Unsolved Murders
Tags

Bulent Kabala

Age: 41

Sex: male

Date: 12 Feb 2018

Place: Mount Pleasant, Edgeworth Road, Barnet

Bulent Kabala was shot on 12 February 2018 in Cockfosters, Barnet.

He was the cousin of Cafer Aslan who was shot dead in Westminster Road, Enfield on 23 August 2017. It was further noted that his brother, Ilhan Kabala, had been shot outside a nightclub in Turkey in 2014. The police noted that it could not be a coincidence that they were all murdered within a few years of each other.

His post mortem gave his cause of death as being due to gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

His murder was described by the police as having been a well-planned contract killing.

He had just got out of his silver Mercedes taxi outside some shops near Mount Pleasant at the junction with Edgeworth Road in Barnet after being hit by a blue Ford Transit van when four men got out of the van and shot him and then got back in and drove off in the direction of Edgeworth Road.

The police were called to the scene at 11.44pm but Bulent Kabala was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.

The blue Ford Transit van was later recovered in Pilgrims Close on 14 February 2018 and images of it and items found in it were released by the police during an appeal for information about it.

It had been stolen on 6 January 2018 and had been fitted with stolen Polish number plates.

The police said that they later thought they knew who had supplied the Transit van but added that they still had to build a picture of the van's movements prior to the  shooting and up until the time it was found abandoned.

The items found inside the van were described as building tools which it was said might have been used as a cover for the murder and that were possibly stolen.

Several people were arrested during the police investigation:

  • 46-year-old man was arrested on 20 February 2018 on suspicion of murder but later released under investigation.
  • 30-year-old man was arrested on 19 September 2018 on suspicion of conspiring with others to commit murder. He was a serving prisoner at the time.

Bulent Kabala had been a taxi-driver and had lived in Enfield and was of Turkish origin.

He had picked up a fare at around 11.44pm on the Monday night, 12 February 2018 and during the journey he had gone through the roundabout on Mount Pleasant at the junction with Edgeworth Road at which point the blue Ford Transit hit his car which prompted him to stop and get out at which point he was shot.

He was shot four times at close range in the head and chest.

CCTV footage showed that the blue Ford Transit van had been following his Mercedes.

He had been married for 19 years and had three children.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.