18-Year-Old Charged In Robbery Linked To Shooting

The new development here is not in the hospital shooting itself. It is the robbery case that came just before it. Chicago police have now charged 18-year-old Jeron Tate of Maywood as the second person in the April 25 Family Dollar holdup that prosecutors say set the whole chain of events in motion. That matters because the other man in that robbery, 26-year-old Alphanso Talley, is already charged with killing Chicago police officer John Bartholomew and critically wounding another officer at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital later the same day. (abc7chicago.com) ### Who is the newly charged suspect? Tate was arrested on Thursday, May 1, in Englewood by Chicago police and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force. Prosecutors say he was the masked accomplice who entered the Family Dollar with Talley. A judge ordered Tate held pending trial, and his next court date is May 20. (abc7chicago.com) ### What are prosecutors saying he did? The allegation is blunt. Tate and Talley walked into the Family Dollar at 3239 W. Lawrence Ave. just after 8 a.m. on April 25, both wearing masks. Prosecutors say they robbed a 55-year-old cashier at gunpoint, took about $110 from the register, and stole the woman’s wallet and car keys. The clerk was beaten badly enough that prosecutors said her nose was broken and her face was bruised. (abc7chicago.com) ### What charges does Tate face? Tate is charged with armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery, and unlawful restraint. Fox 32’s account lists the robbery count as armed robbery with a firearm and the restraint count as aggravated unlawful restraint, but the basic picture is the same — prosecutors are treating this as a violent felony robbery with serious injuries to the victim. (abc7chicago.com) ### How did police connect the robbery to Talley? Turns out the stolen cash included GPS tracking technology. Investigators used that to trace the suspects after the robbery, and surveillance footage showed them fleeing on scooters. Police caught up with Talley first. Tate, prosecutors say, ran off and was not part of what happened later at the hospital. (abc7chicago.com) ### So how does Swedish Hospital fit in? After Talley was arrested, prosecutors say he claimed he had swallowed five bags of narcotics. That led officers to take him to Swedish Hospital for observation. Inside a CT scan room, while under a blanket and in police custody, Talley allegedly pulled out a 10mm handgun, shot Bartholomew and another officer, then escaped before officers found him hiding under a porch. (abc7chicago.com) ### Was Tate accused in the shooting too? No — at least not from the charges now on file. Prosecutors said in court that Tate was not involved in the hospital shooting because he had fled earlier. The hospital shooting case remains centered on Talley, not Tate. (abc7chicago.com)in the missing front half of the story. The public already knew about the hospital shooting. Tate’s case lays out the robbery that came first and ties another person to it. It also sharpens the bigger unresolved question — how Talley still had a gun after being arrested, searched, and transported to a hospital. That security failure is now under review by both Chicago police and Endeavor Health. (chicago.suntimes.com) ### Bottom line Basically, prosecutors are building two connected cases from the same morning — one against Tate for the violent robbery, and one against Talley for the robbery and the officer’s killing that followed. The robbery charge against Tate does not answer how the gun got into Swedish Hospital. But it does make the timeline a lot clearer. (abc7chicago.com)