A Chinese immigrant, living in Italy illegally, stole a handgun from a security guard and later opened fire on police during a confrontation in Milan on Thursday afternoon, authorities revealed over the weekend.
The incident began around 2:30 p.m., when the suspect, identified by Italian media as a Chinese national in his mid-to-late twenties, allegedly attacked a security guard who was walking to work, striking the roughly 50-year-old man on the head with a stick before taking his Walther P99 pistol and fleeing.
Police tracked the suspect toward the Rogoredo area in Milan’s southeastern suburbs. Around 3:15 p.m., a firearms squad intercepted him near Piazza Mistral. According to Il Giornale, the suspect fired several shots, some of which struck a police vehicle. Officers returned fire, seriously wounding him. No officers were injured in the exchange.
The suspect was taken to Milan’s Niguarda Hospital in critical condition, suffering gunshot injuries to his head and arm. Authorities are investigating both the shootout and the earlier assault on the security guard.
The confrontation occurred close to the location where Abhderraim Mansouri, a 28-year-old Moroccan national, was fatally shot by police earlier in the week in a separate incident.
Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini publicly expressed support for the officers involved. “I’m with the policeman,” he wrote on X.
Io sto col Poliziotto. pic.twitter.com/aNT0bsAQ7A
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) February 1, 2026The suspect’s family had posted appeals on social media from China days before the incident, saying he had gone missing in Milan and was suffering from severe psychological distress.
“Please help us bring him home,” his wife wrote, adding that he had left without money or a phone and had not been heard from since.
“He had left to give us a better life. Before leaving, he smiled and promised the children he would return for the Chinese New Year with gifts,” she added.
