Mayor attacked in Isère: "sadistic smile", "feeling of injustice", "commando outfit"... What we know after the suspect's indictment

The case has sparked a reaction from both residents and politicians. The mayor of a village in Isère was violently attacked on Wednesday by a man who fled. After thirty-six hours on the run, the sixty-year-old was arrested on Friday.

Following his police custody, he was charged with "attempted murder of a person in a position of public authority" and placed in pre-trial detention, the Grenoble prosecutor announced on Sunday, August 10. Etienne Manteaux provided new details on this violent attack during a press conference . Franceinfo provides an update on the initial elements of the investigation.

The mayor was attacked with a knife on the public highway

Gilles Dussault has been mayor of Villeneuve-de-Marc, a town of 1,171 inhabitants located between Lyon and Grenoble, since 2014. The 63-year-old man was clearing ivy in front of his house on the public highway on Wednesday afternoon when a resident approached him and, without saying a word, hit him with "a piece of scrap metal," piercing his lung. While trying to defend himself, the mayor was injured in the arm before his attacker fled, prosecutor Etienne Manteaux reported on Sunday.

The mayor's son, alerted by a neighbor, arrived at the scene of the attack and called for help. At 4:48 p.m., he saw a vehicle coming toward them. The two men managed to avoid its path, and the car crashed into a wall. The driver got out of the vehicle and exchanged blows with the mayor's son before fleeing, abandoning his car on the spot.

The suspect was arrested without resistance, after hiding in the woods

Alerted around 5 p.m., the gendarmes "immediately deployed significant resources," according to the Grenoble prosecutor, without managing to find the suspect by the evening. The Grenoble search unit was deployed on Thursday morning.

According to the police, the attacker hid in the woods, not without taking the precaution of putting on a "commando outfit" . Spotted by a resident of a neighboring village, he was finally arrested without resistance, thirty-six hours later, Friday at 11:30 a.m., in woods in the commune of Charantonnay, 14 kilometers from the scene of the attack. He "was not armed" and "did not offer any resistance" when he was arrested on the public highway, according to a press release from the Grenoble prosecutor.

Suspect admits to beatings, but denies intent to kill

The 60-year-old man, a resident of Villeneuve-de-Marc, has no criminal record. During his hearings, he told investigators that he had "lost his temper" over a dispute with the town hall, linked to the collapse of the roof of a municipal building onto his garden shed in 2022. The dispute had "become entrenched" and had "clearly generated in this man a feeling of injustice," explained Etienne Manteaux.

According to the prosecutor, the suspect demonstrates a "persecutory experience" , "a tendency to reinterpret what he experiences" . He is convinced that the mayor was exercising "surveillance" over him and wanted to "buy back" his land. At his home, two knives were also found under his pillow, which he explained as a desire to "defend himself" , assuring that his sister, who died in April, had been "murdered" .

He also said that just before he committed the act, the mayor looked at him "with a sadistic smile." "It was the accumulation of things that made me lose my temper," he also told investigators, explaining that he had grabbed "a piece of scrap metal from his workshop" before going to hit the mayor.

"Aware" of his actions, according to the prosecutor, he denies any intention of having wanted to touch a vital organ or to kill. If he returned with his car, a few moments after the attack, it was "to see what he had done," he declared, assuring that the mayor and his son had "thrown" themselves on his vehicle, also added Etienne Manteaux. The Grenoble prosecutor had requested that the suspect be charged with "double attempted murder of a person in a position of public authority" and "attempted murder" of the mayor's son.

The victim, hospitalized, is out of danger

Gilles Dussault was urgently hospitalized in Lyon on Wednesday evening. His life was initially in danger, but was lifted on Thursday. Suffering from "three wounds, including two to the chest and one defensive wound," the city councilor has since been interviewed by investigators and confirmed the events reported by the first witnesses, the Vienne prosecutor's office said on Friday. His injuries have left him with a two-week total incapacity for work (ITT). On Sunday, the Grenoble prosecutor confirmed that "his life is no longer in danger today, and we can hope that he will be released from the hospital in the coming days."

The mayor's son was hospitalized in Vienna on Wednesday evening in a relatively emergency situation. He "suffers from less significant injuries," mainly scratches and burns, according to the magistrate, who reported 13 days of temporary incapacity for work.

Many political reactions

This attack has prompted a reaction from many politicians, even at the highest levels of government. "When an elected official is attacked, it is the nation that stands by them. When its representatives are attacked, the Republic must be severe and uncompromising," Emmanuel Macron reacted Wednesday on X.

Also on X , Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned Thursday "with the greatest firmness the violent attack on Gilles Dussault." "The degree of violence of this act, which comes on top of the numerous attacks on elected officials every day, must lead the public authorities and citizens to react immediately," declared the Association of Mayors of France in a press release .