The police officer suspected in French teen’s killing that set off riots has been freed during probe
PARIS (AP) — A police officer being investigated in the killing of a 17-year-old of North African origin that touched off riots around France was freed from jail Wednesday while the probe continues. The prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb where Nahel Merzouk was shot said magistrates concluded that continued detention of the motorcycle officer “no longer fulfills the legal criteria” for which he was held. The officer was given a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide. The rioting was driven by a mainly teenage backlash against a French state that many with immigrant roots say routinely discriminates against them.