NICE, France, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Jewelry shop owners in Nice, France, closed their stores Monday to show solidarity with a fellow jeweler charged with murder after shooting a thief.
Shopkeepers in the city's professional jewelers' guild shuttered their stores for 15 minutes Monday afternoon to demonstrate their support of Stephan Turk, 67, who was arrested and is now under electronic surveillance in his home, Radio France Internationale reported.
The prosecutor who recommended the murder charge said Turk was in no immediate danger when he fired his pistol at a youth and an accomplice fleeing his shop with jewelry they had stolen, RFI said.
Jan Arin, president of the Association of Jewelers on the Cote d'Azur, said there were more than 400 robberies of jewelry shops in Nice in 2012 and Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi has expressed his support of the shopkeepers' action.
