A European arrest warrant has been issued against the man suspected of having killed Lilian Dejean, a municipal employee, shot dead on 8 September in Grenoble, the public prosecutor’s office announced on Monday 16 September. The warrant was issued on Friday, said prosecutor Eric Vaillant, specifying that it was“a guarantee” in case of flight abroad.
Lilian Dejean, a 49-year-old father, was shot in the chest in the early hours of September 8 as he tried to stop a man from fleeing after causing a road accident while driving a powerful rental car registered in Poland. The municipal employee died shortly afterwards in hospital. Lilian Dejean’s death sparked immense emotion among his colleagues and the inhabitants of Grenoble. His remains were handed over to his family this week by investigators and will be buried on Wednesday in Guadeloupe. The driver of the vehicle hit by the suspect during the accident, an elderly woman, was slightly injured. A white march brought together a thousand people on Sunday.
The 25-year-old suspect, whose identity card was found in the wrecked car he abandoned at the scene, has been wanted for a week. Police have carried out several searches, including at his home in Saint-Martin-d’Hères, on the outskirts of Grenoble. According to the public prosecutor’s office, no arrests have been made. A judicial investigation has been opened for “homicide of a public service mission officer”, “unintentional injuries” “aggravated by speed and hit-and-run”, and “possession of category B weapons”.
The suspect is known to the courts in particular for “robbery, violence and drug trafficking”, and for having beaten, together with five fellow prisoners, another prisoner at the Varces (Isère) remand centre in June 2023. Tried in August 2023 on this grounds of violence, he was sentenced to four months in prison with a five-year ban on possessing weapons. A week after his return to prison, he was involved in new acts of violence for which he was to be tried on 3 October.
The tragedy occurred against a backdrop of tensions in the Alpine metropolis, following a summer marked by numerous incidents of violence and shootouts between drug traffickers. Since the beginning of the year, at least eighteen episodes of armed violence have been recorded in the territory and the authorities no longer hesitate to speak about it. “gang war”.
