Tiemoue Bakayoko has spoken out on being the victim of mistaken identity after being stopped at gunpoint by police in Italy.
The incident is said to have taken place at the Porta Garibaldi area in the city of Milan on July 3. Police had set up a roadblock following a shootout between two gangs with Bakayoko – on loan at AC Milan from Chelsea – stopped and searched at the checkpoint in a terrifying ordeal.
Video footage shows the central midfielder being restrained by an officer and pushed against the side of a police car at gunpoint. He's then searched before the officer in question appears to realise his mistake.
The officer appears to empty Bakayoko's pockets and place the contents on the roof of the police car, before two other officers – who have their guns drawn – point towards his car, where another occupant was being watched by a cop. The video footage cuts off at the point where the police appear to realise that they have made an error, possibly after Bakayoko explained who he was to clarify that this was a case of mistaken identity.
Bakayoko has now spoken out about the incident and claimed that he and the other passenger in his car were placed "in danger" by the actions of the police. He was not angered by the error itself but by the "methodology" used by the officers in the incident.
The French midfielder has explained: "The problem is not the error but the methodology used. I found the weapon within a metre of me and the passenger. They clearly put us in danger regardless of the reasons that led to doing this."
It comes after the police defended their actions during the incident in a statement reading: "It should be noted that the search occurred in an operational context that justified the adoption of the highest security measures.
"Also as a function of self-protection, and [it] was carried out in a manner absolutely consistent with the type of alarm in progress. Once the person had been identified and [it had been] established that he was not involved, the service was resumed without any kind of remark from the person concerned."
Bakayoko, 27, is halfway through a two-season loan deal at Milan. The midfielder spent the 2018-19 campaign on loan at Milan before returning to Monaco for a season-long loan deal the following year. He spent the 2020-21 season at Napoli before more recently returning to the Milanese giants.
Capped once by France in 2017, the midfielder joined Chelsea later that year £40million deal from Monaco and made 43 first-team appearances in his debut season at Stamford Bridge, helping the club to win that season's FA Cup crown. However, despite playing the full 90 minutes of that showpiece victory over Manchester United – the central midfielder has not featured for the Blues in a competitive match in the four years since, being loaned out multiple times.
