The initial police report of the incident said that a traffic cop observed a car "driving erratically", signaled it to stop, after which the driver exited the car and charged at the cop while wielding a knife. Thus, the police officer, fearing for his life, had no choice but to shoot him. ("Fearing for his life" explicitly stated in the report.)
Later, when the bodycam footage and security camera footage from a nearby building were released, it turned out that the entire report was a huge lie. The driver never exited his car. He didn't even so much as open the car's door. The cop didn't shoot at someone charging at him with a knife: He ran to the car and started shooting with his service pistol through the closed window.
And no, it's not like the cop approached the car, noticed the person inside perhaps wielding some weapon, and then took his pistol and started shooting. No, the cop immediately took out his pistol when he exited his patrol car, pointed it at the citizen's car and started running towards it, and once he reached the driver's side window he started immediately shooting.
Why did he do that?
The news reports don't say or show it, but my educated guess is: The cop had signaled the citizen's car to stop, and he didn't stop immediately, instead stopping after a little while.
When that happens, it triggers American cops to go on murderous rampages. In this case quite literally so, with the cop murdering the driver outright, without hesitation.
And of course he then lied in his report.
Perhaps a bit unusually, this time the cop is on trial for murder. I suppose this case was too clear-cut for him and his superiors to weasel out of it.
I'm not aware of any other country in the world where cops go on murderous rampages if a car they have signaled to stop doesn't stop immediately, but stops after a little while. If there is another country where cops behave like that, at this point in time I'm not aware of it.
You can see a news report about this incident for example here.
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