Man accused of killing Chicago police officer had escaped electronic monitoring before shooting at Swedish Hospital

As the man accused of killing a Chicago police officer and critically wounding another in a shooting at Swedish Hospital made his first court appearance on Monday, questions remained about why he wasn't being held in jail after multiple run-ins with the law.

The shooting that killed Officer John Bartholomew and left another officer fighting for his life happened while 26-year-old Alphanso Talley was in police custody, but what court records show led up to the shooting paints a picture about possible failures in Cook County's electronic monitoring system. 

Before the shooting, Talley spent multiple years in and out of prison. Court records show his criminal past dates back to 2017.

He'd been convicted of armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm, driving a stolen car, and aggravated battery of a correctional officer.

While on parole in April 2025, he was arrested again for carjacking a woman and robbing a man. A judge ordered he be detained, but that didn't last.

In December, Talley was released on electronic monitoring and was told he'd be monitored 24/7.

A month later, the judge changed the terms of Talley's release so he could go to college, allowing him to leave home for 7 to 15 hours a day.

Records show Talley violated the terms of that electronic monitoring multiple times. He violated curfew, and missed a court date in March. His whereabouts were unknown, because he didn't charge his monitor.

He was found on Saturday, arrested not because of a warrant issued for his arrest for failure to appear in court, but because he had been accused of robbing a Family Dollar store.

Two officers, including Bartholomew, took Talley to Swedish Hospital after he claimed to have swallowed drugs. Prosecutors said, while preparing to undergo a medical scan, Talley pulled out a gun and shot the two officers before fleeing the scene. The officers were both taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where Bartholomew was pronounced dead. The surviving officer was still fighting for his life at the hospital on Monday.

Sources said, had the judge in March issued a warrant for violating his electronic monitoring rather than just failing to appear in court, a search for Talley would have been expedited by the Cook County Sheriff's Office, something Chief Judge Charles Beach has said is a priority among changes his office implemented to the electronic monitoring system after he took office last year.

CBS News Chicago reached out to the chief judge's office on Monday about what was and what was not done to track down Talley in the weeks before the shooting, but his office did not immediately respond.