Istanbul Police Deputy Chief, Celal Yılmaz has been arrested on Thursday, during his first hearing over a road rage related murder in Istanbul in August.

Celal Yılmaz, 51, is being charged for having shot and killed motorcyclist Ahmet Sülüşoğlu, 32, following an argument while he was on his way home with his wife in Istanbul's Halkalı district.

Yılmaz faces a prison term of up to 18 years on charges of deliberate manslaughter.

Hearings at the trial began on Wednesday morning as the court decided the next day that Yılmaz be arrested while the hearings continue. No journalist was allowed in the court room while the hearing commenced.

On August 17, Yılmaz and the victim Suluşoğlu got into a road fight after the latter reportedly veered his motorcycle toward Yılmaz's car. The motorcyclist allegedly later followed the deputy police chief to his house where the two men continued arguing. This is when the shooting took place.

In his testimony, Yılmaz said the victim confronted him and drew a pistol, so he fired in self-defense. Sülüşoğlu's gun was found to be a blank cartridge pistol.

The shooting incident triggered debate in Turkey on whether a deputy police chief should be more careful when firing a gun, as he had been trained to use a gun to inflict injury rather than killing the victim.