Prosecutors are offering new details on how they say a suspect smuggled a gun into a Chicago hospital before fatally shooting a police officer over the weekend.
According to police, the suspect in the case had been taken into custody on allegations he had participated in an armed robbery Saturday morning, then once he was transported to a hospital he opened fire, striking and killing 38-year-old Chicago Police Officer John Bartholomew and critically wounding his partner.
Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, a 55-year-old woman was opening a Family Dollar store in the 3200 block of West Lawrence when two men entered the store, including one who was carrying a backpack.
When she asked the man to leave the backpack at the counter in accordance with store policy, one of the suspects, identified by prosecutors as Alphanso Talley, pulled out a weapon and pointed it at her. He then approached her and struck her in the face with the gun, according to prosecutors.
As he allegedly held the clerk at gunpoint, the other suspect tried to open the cash register and the safe, but was unable to do so. Eventually the two suspects went through the victim’s purse, stealing her wallet and car keys before Talley allegedly struck her twice more in the face.
New developments came to light Thursday after a CPD officer was fatally shot at a local hospital, and Randy Gyllenhaal has more.
Finally, the suspects grabbed cash from the register and fled the scene on a Lime scooter, authorities said.
The clerk hit the panic button in the store and called police, and officers were able to track the suspects’ movements via a GPS tracker contained within the stolen cash. That cash was allegedly dumped into a trash can, along with the victim’s car keys, in the 3400 block of North Troy, police said.
Officers located Talley at the scene, and when they approached he claimed he was calling an Uber, providing the officers with a fake ID and false name. After recovering the store clerk’s wallet from a trash can, they also found a bundle of bloodstained cash in Talley’s pocket and saw blood on his pants and shoes.
After being placed in the back of a squad car, Talley then told police that he had swallowed multiple bags of narcotics and that he was having trouble breathing. Officers called paramedics, and he was transported to Swedish Covenant Hospital.
Upon arrival, Talley was put into a hospital gown, but was allowed to keep his pants on, according to court documents. He was then handcuffed to a bed, and was covered with a blanket as he was transported to the CT area of the hospital.
A Chicago police officer was killed and a second was critically wounded in a shooting by a suspect at Endeavor Swedish Hospital on Saturday. Vi Nguyen reports.
Surveillance video at the hospital showed him fidgeting underneath the blanket as he was moved through the hospital, and eventually he was wheeled into the CT room.
There, Bartholomew uncuffed him from the bed and unshackled his legs to prepare him for a CT scan. It was at that point the suspect reached under the blanket, pulled out a firearm believed to be the same gun from the armed robbery, and shot Bartholomew once in the head.
He then turned and shot a 57-year-old CPD officer in the chin, with the bullet lodging in the back of that officer’s neck.
The fire alarm in the CT room went off, and engineers investigating it found the suspect holding his gun, which he then pointed at them. He stole a work ID from one of the witnesses, allowing him to head toward the exit. He couldn’t open a glass door used by employees to enter the hospital and fired shots, shattering the glass.
He attempted to steal car keys from a hospital worker at that entrance, but the employee fled, along with a postal worker, according to prosecutors.
The suspect then fled the hospital grounds, naked and carrying his hospital gown and a firearm. He was located just over an hour later hiding under a porch in the 2600 block of West Carmen, and he was taken into custody.
Talley now faces charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, along with multiple armed robbery charges. He was ordered held in custody pending his trial, according to authorities.
The second officer that was shot during the attack remains hospitalized in critical condition, according to court documents.
