Man charged in fatal hospital shooting Chicago police officer violated his electronic monitoring weeks before

The man accused of killing a Chicago police officer and critically wounding another during a shooting at Swedish Hospital was back in court on Tuesday to face charges from a previous case.  

Alphanso Talley, 26, was back in court for violating his electronic monitoring weeks before the shooting at Swedish Hospital. His hearing lasted about five minutes and was continued until June.

This comes after Talley made his first appearance in Cook County Criminal Court on Monday after the hospital shooting that killed Officer John Bartholomew. At that appearance, Talley was ordered detained until trial on a litany of charges related to the shooting.

Before Saturday's shooting, court records show Talley was most recently facing multiple carjacking-related charges from May of last year, including aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm. 

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, Talley was arrested again for carjacking a woman and robbing a man. A judge ordered that 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, the same one from Tuesday's hearing, 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 the battery in his ankle monitor, which died in early March.

"This is BS that we're even here. It's a failed system. It's an absolutely failed system," Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st) said Monday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse after Talley's detention hearing. "It's flawed. It's broken. It needs to end. It's needs to end immediately. Start to hold these judges accountable for letting people out for no reason at all."

Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said Tuesday that prosecutors ask for criminal defendants to be detained if they're a danger to the public, and in Talley's case, among others, judges release the defendants on electronic monitoring despite the threat.

"Since I took this job 15, 16 months ago, I have been screaming about electronic monitoring," said O'Neill Burke. "Electronic monitoring is not an alternative to detention. It does not keep people safe."

O'Neill Burke said her office did everything in their power to keep Talley in custody. She said that if the State's Attorney's office does not believe a defendant is a danger and does not ask for detention, there is no issue with that defendant going about their life while preparing for trial. But if prosecutors do ask for detention, O'Neill Burke said, there is always a reason — and that reason is always laid out before a judge.

"We make sure that we put every bit of information in front of a judge to establish why we believe this person presents a danger, as we did in this case. We established that he had four pending violent felonies, and in spite of that, he was placed on electronic monitoring," O'Neill Burke said. "The electronic monitoring system is broken. It does not work."

As for electronic monitoring, she said to have an effective system, those in violation should be arrested by sworn law enforcement, but that does not happen. The Office of the Chief Judge, which is in charge of the program, promised to expedite major violations. It is unclear if that will happen in Talley's case.

For the charges associated with the shooting of the officers this past weekend, prosecutors on Monday laid out a timeline that began around 8 a.m., when they said Talley and an unknown second person went to a Family Dollar in Albany Park in the 3200 block of W. Lawrence Ave. for an armed robbery. There, prosecutors said they pistol-whipped an employee, robbed the store of cash, and stole the worker's wallet and keys. Surveillance video shows two people arriving on scooters and, moments later, leaving before police arrive.

Investigators said officers were able to use a GPS device on the stolen items to help them track Talley down. They took him into custody, and he told police he had swallowed narcotics, so police called an ambulance, and Talley was taken to Swedish Hospital, according to prosecutors.

Talley remained under police guard as he was seen at the hospital and taken to a room to receive a CT scan. His clothes were removed, but a blanket was kept over him, prosecutors said in court. Prosecutors said his handcuffs were removed for the scan, which is when Talley reached under the blanket, pulled out a gun, and shot at officers. 

Bartholomew was killed. A second officer, 57 years old and a 21-year veteran of the force, remained in critical condition Monday morning at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said the second officer's condition remains extremely grave, saying "it's going to take a miracle" for him to survive.

Talley then fled, shooting out a window of the hospital as he did, according to prosecutors. He was found a short time later under a porch nearby, still nude with his hospital gown and a 10mm handgun, prosecutors said.

An Indiana woman, Olivia Burgos, has been arrested on federal charges in connection with the purchase of the gun police say was used in the shooting.