A white march is planned for Sunday, September 15, at noon in Grenoble, in tribute to Lilian Dejean, a municipal employee shot dead a week ago by a man still at large.
Organised by his family, the march will start on Boulevard Jean-Pain, where the tragedy took place, and will go to the neighbourhood where he grew up, the Olympic Village, in the south of Grenoble, detouring past the urban cleaning facilities where he worked.
According to the municipality, the mayor, Eric Piolle, and other elected officials should participate. “There will be a lot of people”a friend of the deceased’s family, who was unanimously described as appreciated and very committed to the community, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Lilian Dejean, a 49-year-old cleaner and father of a family, was shot in the chest in the early hours of 8 September as he tried to stop a man from fleeing after causing a road accident while driving a powerful Polish-registered rental car. He died shortly afterwards in hospital, sparking immense emotion among his colleagues and residents who had paid him enthusiastic tributes the day after the murder.
Lilian Dejean’s body was returned to her family by investigators this week and she is due to be buried Wednesday in Guadalupe, according to a family friend who declined to give her name.
Suspected murderer wanted
The 25-year-old suspect, whose identity card was found in the broken-down car he abandoned at the scene, has been actively sought 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 arrest has been made.
A judicial investigation has been opened for “murder of a public service officer”, “unintentional injuries” “aggravated by speed and hit-and-run” and “possession of category B weapons”, according to Grenoble prosecutor Éric Vaillant.
The suspect is known to the courts in particular for “theft, violence and drug trafficking”, and for having beaten, together with five fellow prisoners, another prisoner at the Varces pre-trial detention centre (Isère) in June 2023.
Tried in August 2023 for this violence, he received a four-month prison sentence accompanied by 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 October 3.
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The driver of the vehicle hit by the suspect during the accident, an elderly woman, was slightly injured.
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. At least eighteen episodes of armed violence have been recorded in the territory since the beginning of the year and the authorities no longer hesitate to speak about it. “gang war”.
“Hate does not make us move forward or grow. Communicating it even less. There is anger, that is for sure, towards this person.”one of the victim’s brothers, Jean-Marc Dejean, told France Bleu Isère.
