Organized by the family, the march will leave around noon from Boulevard Jean Pain, where the tragedy took place, to reach the neighborhood where the murdered municipal agent grew up, the Olympic Village.
A silent march is taking place this Sunday at midday in Grenoble in tribute to Lilian Dejean, a city employee shot dead a week ago by a man still on the run. Organized by the family, the march will leave around noon from Boulevard Jean Pain, where the tragedy took place, to reach the neighborhood where he grew up, the Olympic Village, in the south of Grenoble, making a detour to the urban cleaning offices where he worked. Residents began to gather near the departure point of the procession, at the end of the morning.
Mayor Éric Piolle and other elected officials are expected to participate, according to the municipality. “There will be a lot of people”a family friend of the deceased, unanimously described as well-liked and very committed to the community, assured AFP. Lilian Dejean, a 49-year-old cleaning agent and father, was shot in the chest early on September 8 while trying to prevent a man who had caused a traffic accident at the wheel of a powerful rental car registered in Poland from fleeing.
He died shortly after in hospital, sparking immense emotion among his colleagues and residents who had paid him vibrant tributes the day after the murder. Lilian Dejean’s body was handed over to his family by investigators this week and is expected to be buried Wednesday in Guadeloupe, according to the family friend, who did not wish to give her name.
Known to justice
As for the alleged murderer, aged 25 and whose ID was found in the wrecked car that he abandoned at the scene, he has been actively sought for a week. The police have carried out several searches, including where he was domiciled in Saint-Martin-d’Hères in the suburbs of Grenoble. No one has been taken into custody, according to the prosecution.
A judicial investigation has been opened for “murder of a person carrying out a public service mission”, “unintentional injury” “aggravated by speed and hit-and-run”et “possession of category B weapons”according to Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant. The suspect is known to the courts in particular for “theft, violence and drug trafficking”and for having beaten up, with five fellow prisoners, another prisoner at the Varces remand center (Isère) in June 2023.
Tried in August 2023 for this violence, he was sentenced to four months in prison with a ban on owning a weapon for five years. A week after his return to prison, he was involved in new violence for which he was due to be tried on October 3. The driver of the vehicle hit by the suspect during the accident, an elderly woman, was slightly injured.
The tragedy occurred in a context of tensions in the Alpine metropolis after a summer marked by numerous incidents of violence and shootings between drug traffickers. At least 18 episodes of gun violence have been recorded in the territory since the beginning of the year and the authorities no longer hesitate to speak of “gang war”. “Hate does not help you move forward or grow. Communicating it even less. There is anger, for sure, in relation to this person.”one of the victim’s brothers, Jean-Marc Dejean, told France Bleu Isère.
