Report raises questions about earlier police search tied to suspect in Swedish Hospital officer killing
- Chicago police are reexamining how murder suspect Alphanso Talley got a handgun into Swedish Hospital before Officer John Bartholomew was killed on April 25. - Arrest records say officers found blood-stained cash in Talley’s jeans and jacket after a Family Dollar robbery, but no gun turned up. - The gap matters because prosecutors say Talley later pulled a handgun from under a blanket during a CT scan.
A police search is now the big unanswered piece in the killing of Chicago Officer John Bartholomew at Swedish Hospital. The basic question is blunt — if Alphanso Talley was arrested, searched, and taken to a hospital under guard, how did he still have a gun? That question got sharper this week after reporting surfaced details from the earlier arrest paperwork. The records say officers found blood-stained cash on Talley after a Family Dollar robbery, but they did not recover the weapon prosecutors say he later used to kill Bartholomew. (cbsnews.com) ### What happened at the hospital? Prosecutors say Talley, 26, was arrested the morning of April 25 after an armed robbery at a Family Dollar in Albany Park. After the arrest, Talley told officers he had swallowed five bags of drugs and was taken to Swedish Hospital for treatment. Ther(cbsnews.com)n, and fired. Bartholomew was shot in the head and killed. The second officer was shot in the face and badly wounded. (cbsnews.com) ### What does the earlier search report add? The new detail is not that Talley was searched — everybody already knew that. The new detail is what officers say they actually noticed during that search. The arrest report says two officers observed a bundle of money with blood stains in T(cbsnews.com)s-on, not like a quick glance that missed everything. (cbsnews.com) ### So where could the gun have been? That is the part nobody has publicly pinned down. One theory floating around is that the gun was hidden in a body fold or somewhere the search did not reach. Another possibility is that some step in custody, transport, clothing changes, or hospital(cbsnews.com)nd cash and contraband signs, followed by a hospital shooting with a gun that should have been impossible to keep. (cbsnews.com) ### Why does the blanket matter? Because it explains how the shooting itself happened, even if it does not explain how the gun got there. Prosecutors say Talley undressed for the CT scan and was given a blanket. They say he then reached under that blanket and pulled out the handgun. Basically, the blanket was concealment at the final moment — not the answer to the larger custody question. (chicago.suntimes.com) ### Was the hospital supposed to catch the weapon too? Endeavor Health has said Talley was wanded when he arrived under its weapon-detection protocols. That adds a second layer of scrutiny to the story. If police searched him and the hospital also screened him, the failure does not look like one missed step. It looks like multiple safety layers that still did not stop a gun from reaching a treatment area. (chicago.suntimes.com) ### Why is this becoming such a big issue? Because this was not just an escape or a scuffle. A detained suspect allegedly used a hidden gun to kill a 38-year-old officer inside a hospital and critically wound another. When something that serious happens after arrest, every custody step becomes fair game for review — the street search, transport, hospital intake, restraints, and scan procedures. (chicago.suntimes.com) ### What is the bottom line? The new report does not solve the mystery. It makes the mystery harder to wave away. Officers appear to have done a real search and documented specific evidence on Talley, yet prosecutors still say he kept the gun used at Swedish Hospital. Until Chicago police explain that gap, the case will keep raising the same ugly question — what exactly failed before John Bartholomew was killed? (cbsnews.com)
