Abdoul Diallo, 25, was indicted by a judge in Grenoble for murder, unintentional injury and possession of a weapon, said prosecutor Eric Vaillant, confirming information from Dauphiné Libéré.
The man was arrested on November 21 in Portugal after 74 days on the run, then transferred Thursday evening to France.
He is suspected of having killed Lilian Dejean, a 49-year-old cleaning agent, on the morning of Sunday September 8 in Grenoble.
In a statement to Dauphiné Libéréthe suspect’s lawyer, Me Grégoire De Petiville, assured that his “client fully assumes responsibility in the death of Lilian Dejean”. “He obviously understands his incarceration which he did not object to. He will explain himself in more detail during the investigation”he told the regional daily.
Contacted by AFP, the lawyer refused to make any further statement. Lilian Dejean was shot in the chest by a man he was trying to hold back after causing a traffic accident while driving a powerful rental car registered in Poland.
The elderly father died shortly afterwards in hospital.
19 convictions
Identity papers in the name of Abdoul Diallo, residing in Saint-Martin-d’Hères in the suburbs of Grenoble, were found in the vehicle abandoned by its driver, who had fled on foot.
The driver of the vehicle struck during the accident, an elderly woman, slightly injured, had received six days of temporary work interruption (ITT).
The death of Lilian Dejean aroused immense emotion in Grenoble, where residents paid vibrant tributes to her the day after the murder, then during a white march. He was then buried in Guadeloupe.
Abdou Diallo already had a long record, including 19 convictions including “many for acts of violence but also for drug trafficking”according to prosecutor Eric Vaillant.
He was first incarcerated by the Grenoble children’s judge at the age of 15 and was sentenced to a total of six years in prison over the last ten years.
In view of “his sensitivity, the emotion that was caused in Isère and the facts of this particular gravity”, this is a file “major”indicated Damien Delaby, zonal director of the judicial police, after the arrest of the suspect.
More than forty investigators participated in his hunt. The white march in tribute to Lilian Dejean brought together a thousand people, including many elected officials such as the environmentalist mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle.
The tragedy occurred in the middle of a dark series for the Grenoble metropolis, where according to the authorities a “gang war” between drug traffickers is playing out. At the end of October, the prosecution counted around fifty gunshots linked to drug trafficking since the start of 2024, which left six people dead.
