London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

French police officer shoots dead driver who failed to obey order to stop

French police officer shoots dead driver who failed to obey order to stop

An officer is placed into custody following a shooting incident that is another in a series of instances of the use of deadly force by French police.

A French police officer has been detained after shooting dead a driver who failed to obey an order to stop.

Authorities said the driver failed to stop after an officer told him to because he was driving dangerously, in the incident in the southern city of Nice.

Instead, police said, the driver accelerated to flee.

It is the latest in a string of incidents that raise questions about the use of guns by French police.

Nice mayor Christian Estrosi thanked police officers on Twitter.

He wrote: "Full support for @policenat06 agents faced with a refusal to comply on Avenue Henri Matisse. Faced with a driver who deliberately ran over them, they had to use their weapon to neutralise him.

"Refusals to comply are a crime and are on the increase. In the past 24 hours, our @pmdenice has been confronted with two particularly violent refusals to comply. Faced with this upsurge, we must be behind our police."

Deputy prosecutor of Nice, Maud Marty, said at some point the car "turned back to be in front of the police car and rammed into it twice".


She said the officer fired a single shot at the driver.

A video on social media showed the car, in front of the damaged police vehicle, driving backwards while an officer in the street points his gun at the driver's window.

The officer shoots just after the driver appears to stop the car.

Police unions said the officer acted in self-defence.

The latest incident took place in the same week the trial for the 2016 Bastille Day truck attack that killed 86 people in Nice got under way in Paris.

Some experts say the number of deaths caused by officers using their weapons is increasing, with French researcher Christian Mouhanna, from France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) saying the rise in incidents came after legal changes were introduced in 2017.

The changes were brought in after a series of attacks by extremists in the country in 2015-2016.

In another recent incident in the western city of Rennes, a 22-year-old woman was killed after police opened fire on the car she was in during an anti-drug operation, wounding the driver.

Earlier this year, a French police officer was charged with involuntary manslaughter after shooting dead two men in a car as they sought to escape a police check on the Pont-Neuf bridge in central Paris, on the night of French President Emmanuel Macron's re-election.

News broadcaster France Info said, based on it own count due to the lack of official statistics, nine people have been killed by police in similar situations this year.

Last year, four people were shot dead in such circumstances, according to police figures.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×