CHICAGO — A man accused of killing Chicago Police officer John Bartholomew and critically wounding his partner while at Swedish Hospital used the same gun in the shootings as he did in a robbery and beating of a store employee on the North Side earlier in the day, prosecutors said Thursday.
Alphanso Talley, 26, was taken to the hospital after being arrested for the first attack at a Family Dollar store after he claimed he had swallowed drugs. But how he was able to allegedly hide the gun even after being taken into police custody and going through hospital security was not addressed in the latest hearing in the case Thursday.
Prosecutors said he used the gun to shoot Bartholomew, 38, a 10-year police veteran, and his partner, a 21-year veteran who remains in critical condition, while getting ready for a CT scan at the hospital. Talley faces a litany of charges in the case, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery of a police officer and kidnapping.
Chicago Police Department Officer John G. Bartholomew was killed in a shooting at Swedish Hospital April 25, 2026. Credit: Chicago Police Department
The details on the gun came out during a lengthy hearing Thursday, in which prosecutors also detailed how Talley allegedly used a Lime scooter to travel to and from the store robbery and later chased and pointed the gun at hospital staff after the shootings. Prosecutors also gave background on his lengthy criminal background, which has led to questions about why a judge last year allowed him to be released on electronic monitoring in separate cases against him.
At the end of the hearing, Talley was ordered detained by Judge D’Anthony Thedford at the end of the hearing.
“No condition that I can impose can keep the community safe from you,” he told Talley.
After the hearing, police union president John Catanzara said that how Talley allegedly snuck the gun into the hospital might never be resolved.
“Nobody knows what happened with that gun. Nobody knows if it was tucked in a fat fold or if it was tucked inside his body, and I don’t know if we’ll ever have an answer because he’s certainly not a believable character,” he said at a press conference.
The Family Dollar at 3239 W. Lawrence Ave. as seen on April 27, 2026. Credit: Molly DeVore/ Block Club Chicago
Proffer: Talley Broke Cashier’s Nose During Robbery
While no new details emerged in court Thursday on how Talley was able to keep the gun in his possession, prosecutors released a proffer of the case which offered a detailed account of the day’s events. That included new details of the robbery and a detailed account of what happened at the hospital, which was witnessed by staff members and patients.
According to the proffer, which was read in court Thursday by Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara, a 55-year-old woman, a cashier at the Family Dollar at 3239 W. Lawrence Ave., opened the store at 8 a.m. on Saturday. A minute later, Talley and another man — who is still on the loose and has not been identified — came inside the store and the woman asked the man to leave his backpack at the door. As he put it down, Talley removed a gun from his waistband and forced the cashier to walk to the store office, Pekara said. He then allegedly hit her with the gun. The two men then tried to open the store safe and cash register, prosecutors said, but were unsuccessful.
They then went through the cashier’s purse and took her wallet and car keys, the proffer states. Talley allegedly pistol-whipped the woman two more times, until she bled. Talley dragged the cashier back to the register where she was eventually able to open it and the men stole $110, Pekara said. The money had GPS tracking technology, according to court documents.
After Talley and the accomplice left, the cashier pressed the store’s panic button and called police. Surveillance video from surrounding businesses showed Talley and the accomplice traveled to and from the store on Lime electric scooters, Pekara said.
Police tracked the money and found Talley in the 3400 block of North Troy Street, according to court documents, and recovered the cashier’s wallet from a nearby trash can. While Talley gave officers a fake ID and name, the cashier was brought to the area and she positively identified him, the proffer states. Police also found a bundle of blood-stained cash in Talley’s pockets and he had blood on his pants and shoes, Pekara said.
The cashier was treated for a broken nose and two black eyes.
Talley was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car. A surveillance camera in the squad car showed Talley fidgeting with something behind his back, according to court documents. Talley then told officers he had swallowed five bags of drugs and was having trouble breathing. Police requested EMS and when the responders arrived, Talley was buckled into a stretcher and taken to Swedish Hospital.
Although hospital officials previously said Talley was wanded and checked for weapons when he arrived, there is no mention of that in the proffer.
SWAT, Illinois State and Chicago police officers respond to a shooting at Swedish Hospital in Lincoln Square on April 25, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Talley was taken to an exam room and had his left arm handcuffed to a hospital bed railing. He was given a hospital gown and removed his clothes; he was given privacy while he took off his pants, according to court documents.
Talley was wearing the hospital gown and a blanket while he was taken to have a CT scan. Security footage from the hospital shows that while Talley’s left hand remained handcuffed, his right hand was under the blanket and he appeared to be fidgeting with something, Pekara said.
When they arrived in the room where the CT scan was, Bartholomew uncuffed Talley and unshackled his legs. Immediately, Talley reached under the blanket at the foot of the hospital bed and pulled out a 10-millimeter semi-automatic handgun, Pekara said. Talley shot Bartholomew in the head and shot at the 57-year-old officer, who was standing near the door, the proffer said. An MRI technician working down the hall heard the gunshots and hid in a nearby room.
Security footage shows Talley tried to get into a room where the MRI technician was hiding. Video also shows that patients in the area tried to hide nearby while Talley ran down a hallway and went through a set of double doors.
After Talley went through the double doors, a fire alarm went off and two of the hospital’s building engineers went to the CT room. Moments after they arrived, Talley returned and pointed the gun at one of the engineers and took his employee badge, Pekara said. Talley tried to leave through the hospital’s employee entrance glass doors, but the doors would not open, so he shot at the doors and left through the shattered glass, the proffer states.
He then chased a hospital employee who was standing on the other side of the door and demanded his car keys, which the employee dropped on the ground, Pekara said. Talley also allegedly chased a postal worker in a van before leaving the hospital grounds on foot.
Surveillance footage showed Talley running naked through neighborhood yards, carrying the hospital gown and the gun, the proffer states. A manhunt ensued that featured a police SWAT team and he was finally arrested while hiding under a porch in the 2600 block of West Carmen Avenue, Pekara said.
According to court documents, surveillance video showed the gun used in the Family Dollar robbery had a flashlight on it as did the gun recovered from Talley after the Swedish Hospital shooting.
A woman who identified herself as Alphanso Talley’s stepsister (right), speaks at the George Leighton Criminal Courthouse on April 30, 2026.
Credit: Molly DeVore/ Block Club Chicago
Family: ‘He’s Not A Monster’
Talley’s attorney, Julie Koehler, said Talley had been a ward of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services until he was 18 and that he bounced around from foster home to foster home. She said he was hospitalized when he was 9 after he attempted to commit suicide and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety as a child. When he turned 18, she said, the mental health care he had been receiving from the state ended. She said that while incarcerated at Cook County Jail, he took eight classes, including an anger management course.
“Mr. Talley is not a person that we should throw away. He has the ability to be rehabilitated,” Koehler said. “That’s what we’re asking judge, that he be given an opportunity to be treated for the mental health problems that he has.”
Talley was seen giggling during the hearing and the judge told him to stop interrupting the hearing multiple times. After the hearing, a woman who identified herself as Talley’s stepsister but did not give her full name, said that “if he did this and it was on camera, he wasn’t in the right state of mind.”
“He’s not a monster,” she said.
Criminal Record Includes Multiple Felonies
Talley has an extensive criminal history dating back years, records show. Those include multiple felony robbery convictions and a carjacking arrest.
In April of last year, Talley was charged with multiple counts of armed robbery and robbery after he robbed a man at gunpoint along with an unnamed accomplice outside a currency exchange. Less than 15 minutes later, Talley and the accomplice stole a woman’s car at gunpoint. Police arrested Talley a short time later and he told them he had taken drugs. However, when Talley was taken to the hospital, “no narcotics were recovered,” according to court documents.
“He had played the ‘I swallowed drugs’ game before, and he knew what that would lead to. He knew that the police would take him to a hospital for his own well being. He knew that he would get into the CT scan room, and he knew that he wouldn’t be cuffed during that time,” Pekara said Thursday. “He knew he was going to try to kill those officers.”
Despite his background and pending charges, Talley was eventually put on electronic monitoring in that case by Judge John Lyke, who has since come under heavy criticism for the decision, which was vigorously opposed by prosecutors.
During the post-hearing news conference, Alds. Jim Gardiner (45th), Anthony Napolitano (41st) and Raymond Lopez (15th) said Talley should have never been out on electronic monitoring.
“If you were in that courtroom and you heard what that individual did in 2017 alone, aggravated kidnapping, carjacking, numerous domestic battery charges, whether as an adult or as an adolescent, he had a laundry list of things that it should have been common sense to keep him behind bars,” Gardiner said.
Lyke did issue a warrant for Talley’s arrest on March 11 after he failed to comply with the terms of his pretrial release on multiple occasions. The warrant remained unfulfilled until he was finally arrested on Saturday.
“You’ve been given every opportunity that the law affords so that you could fight your cases outside of custody, and each and every time you’re violated it in some fashion,” Thedford told Talley during the Thursday hearing. “We cannot trust that you will follow any orders that this court gives.”
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