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Grenoble: 49-year-old municipal agent killed while trying to stop a reckless driver
A 49-year-old municipal agent, employed in cleaning, was shot dead on Sunday in Grenoble, while he was trying to stop the drunken perpetrator of a traffic accident who was fleeing. Several political figures have reacted to this tragedy, “an unspeakable act, of extreme violence” according to the mayor and revealing, according to the LR deputy of Doubs, “the blind and gratuitous violence suffered by all those who defend the general interest”. Around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, an Audi RS3, a powerful model, with a Polish license plate, according to the prosecutor’s office, and driving “at high speed”, hit a car stopped at a red light, a police source told AFP. The driver of the Audi, drunk, according to the prosecutor’s office, was then trying to escape. A passerby tried to keep him there and a city cleaning agent got out of his vehicle to help him, according to the same source. The person responsible for the accident then fired twice at the municipal employee, said Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant, confirming information from the local newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré. Two 9 mm caliber cartridges were found at the scene, added a police source. Images taken by Le Dauphiné Libéré show a strong impact at the rear of the vehicle that was hit and significant deformation at the front of the Audi. The municipal employee, 49 years old and father of two children, died from his injuries during the day, announced the prosecutor early in the afternoon. He was shot twice in the chest, he said. – “Extreme violence” – The driver of the vehicle that was hit, an elderly woman, was only slightly injured, according to a police source. She received six days of temporary work interruption, the prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor’s office has referred the investigation to the police officers of the Local Judicial Police Service (SLPJ) of Grenoble, who are “actively looking for the shooter”, according to Mr. Vaillant. His identity remained unknown at the end of the afternoon, Sunday, according to the prosecutor. “We are in mourning”, reacted the mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, on the social network X, evoking “an unspeakable act, of extreme violence, which targeted one of his agents who was carrying out his municipal missions”. He indicated that the city will open a psychological support unit on Monday. The national secretary of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier assured “her family, her loved ones and all the grieving Grenoble residents” of the full support of her political family. The contested president of the Les Républicains party Eric Ciotti, denounced “a new tragedy which reflects the explosion of violence and the lack of authority in our country”. This incident “reveals the blind and gratuitous violence suffered by all those who defend the general interest”, said the LR MP for Doubs Annie Genevard. “It is obvious that measures must be taken”, said, without specifying them, the opposition group to the Green mayor of Grenoble, which includes in particular the former right-wing mayor Alain Carignon. “The death in service of a respected municipal agent is an unbearable tragedy. We are devastated that it is a municipal agent devoted to his task, who reacted as a citizen, who is the victim of this savagery installed in the city”, added the group in a press release. “All our thoughts go out to (his) loved ones, his work colleagues and comrades in struggle” reacted on X the CGT union of Greater Grenoble, to which the agent was affiliated.tll-mlb/lv/pta
