The police officer had been placed in police custody on Wednesday evening for 24 hours, renewable once, the deputy public prosecutor of Nice, Maud Marty, told AFP.
Wednesday around 4:30 p.m., a man who was traveling without a license in a stolen vehicle, according to the police, died after being shot by this 23-year-old policeman, assistant in a road safety brigade.
According to the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP), the police had signaled to the driver of the vehicle «zigzagging dangerously» to follow them, but the latter had accelerated.
For the relatives of the victim, «it is obvious that we have (case) a homicide, there is no discussion on it», declared Thursday one of their lawyers, Me Sefen Guez Guez.
According to videos posted Thursday on social networks, the driver, blocked by a police car in front, reversed before trying to disengage and restart. But he is then again blocked by the police car in front. It was at this moment that the policeman, gun in hand and standing near the vehicle, fired through the driver’s side window.
Asked about these videos Thursday on Franceinfo, the director general of the national police, Frédéric Veaux, estimated that «in a case like this, it is the whole action that must be analyzed. What happened before, in the environment. The perception that the police may have had at the time of the intervention».
Two investigations were opened in this file: a first, entrusted to the Departmental Security, for attempted homicide on a person holding public authority, a second, by the IGPN, the police force, for intentional homicide by the policeman, shooter.