A French public prosecutor has opened a deliberate homicide investigation against a police officer who shot dead a driver during a traffic stop on Wednesday, the prosecutor's office said on Friday, as lawyers and sociologists report a jump in lethal vehicle police shootings.
The driver, 24, was fatally shot in the southern city of Nice after he refused to stop, rammed a police car and refused to leave his car, the Nice prosecutor said. The car was later found to be stolen.
The officer, 23, told investigators he shot at the driver because his life and the lives of his colleagues were in danger. The officer has been released from police custody. The identities of the driver and the officer have not been made public.
